Some responsible lawmaking at long last: a war tax

It seems as though Congressman Dave Obey's proposal to levy a tax to help pay for the Afghanistan war is serious. Via Yglesias:

The details of the proposal:

Dubbed the “Share the Sacrifice Act,” the six-page bill exempts anyone who has served in Iraq or Afghanistan since the 2001 terrorist attacks as well as families who have lost an immediate relative in the fighting. But middle-class households earning between $30,000 and $150,000 would be asked to pay 1% on top of their tax liability today — a more sweeping approach than many Democrats have been willing to embrace.

I love this idea. It's always bothered me that while we engaged in an elective war in Iraq, Congress was cutting taxes and Bush was keeping cameras away from soldiers' caskets. The American public was shielded from the costs of the war, precluding any reasonable weighing of costs and benefits from taking place. A tax like this would at the very least make the financial costs of the war salient for everybody.

I'd really like to see a Republican--or a Blue Dog Democrat--argue against this one. Especially after all this supposed concern they've been expressing about the deficit.