Just to make a point

I wonder if there was a time when tax law wasn't used as a policy tool. If so, it was most definitely before my time.

TaxProf, Joe Kristan, and Kay Bell, provide coverage on the proposed "pay as you fight" war surtax.

I'm all for fiscal responsibility, including making sure we can actually afford our expenditures before we commit to them. (Novel concept, I know.) But this is not the way to go about achieving that. We didn't add a surtax for TARP, stimulus checks, the blasted "Making Word Pay" credit, or any number of other spending bills.

The purpose of this bill is to make a point, and I would rather not spend our limited government resources going through the motions of a bill just to make a point. I'd hope we have another means of engaging in debate about the issues, and that we would stop using taxes as a primary tool for affecting public policy.

Well, it's a nice dream anyway.