President Obama is facing increasing criticism from senior congressional Democrats over the war’s cost. David Obey, the chair of House Appropriations Committee, has introduced a bill to impose a war surtax. Congressman Obey discussed the proposed tax on ABC News.

Rep. David Obey: “On the merits, I think it’s a mistake to deepen our involvement. But if we are going to do that, then at least we ought to pay for it, because if we don’t, if we don’t pay for it, then the costs of the Afghan war will wipe out every other initiative that we have to try to rebuild our own economy. That’s what happened with the Vietnam War, which wiped out the Great Society. That’s what happened with the Korean War that wiped out Harry Truman’s Square Deal. That’s what happened with the end of the progressive movement back before the ’20s when we went into World War I. In each case, the costs of those wars shut off our ability to afford anything else.”