Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke is proposing to create a “war tax” that would fund a trust fund dedicated to veterans’ benefits including health care and disability compensation. The tax would go into effect “at the start of any newly authorized war,” O’Rourke’s proposal states, and would not apply to households with members currently in the military or veterans
Here’s how much different households would pay under the proposal:
- Income less than $30,000 a year: $25
- less than $40,000: $57
- less than $50,000: $98
- less than $75,000: $164
- less than $100,000: $270
- less than $200,000: $485
- more than $200,000: $1,000.
O’Rourke is also calling for an end to wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, which he says will save $400 billion, half of which he proposes to spend on benefits for veterans of those wars.
“Eighteen years into the war in Afghanistan, and nearly three decades after our first engagement in Iraq, the best way to honor our veterans’ service is to cancel the blank check for endless war — and reinvest the savings to ensure every American can thrive upon their return home,” the former representative from Texas said in a prepared statement Monday.
