David Broder Quotes
For the first time in history, we declared war without financing it. Americans have not been asked to pay for it through taxes.
Broder, David S. The Washington Post, 2007.
Roosevelt was very candid with the American people that there would be high cost to war and sacrifice would be needed. See {584569} for other similar candor. This quotation was often used by critics of George W. Bush who initiated the Iraq War and then cut taxes for the rich, but then financed the war through the budgetary emergency appropriations bypassing the budget rules that the revenue must be specified to pay for it. His administration even claimed at an early stage in the war that the oil revenue from Iraq oil would defray the costs.
During the Iraq War, President George W. Bush, cut taxes several times as part of his economic philosophy. The result he claimed kept the economy sound. It also plunged the nation into the highest national deficit in U. S. History.
Wilson was very candid that there would be high cost to war and sacrifice would be needed. See {584570} for other similar candor. This quotation was often used by critics of George W. Bush who initiated the Iraq War and then cut taxes for the rich, but then financed the war through the budgetary emergency appropriations bypassing the budget rules that the revenue must be specified to pay for it. His administration even claimed at an early stage in the war that the oil revenue from Iraq oil would defray the costs.
Jefferson was opposed to a standing army or a buildup of revenue even in case of war. He thought that a national surplus might tempt an administration to engage in war. This was one of the biggest differences between the Jeffersonians or Republican Democrats as they called themselves and the Federalists led by George Washington and John Adams. Washington was a strong advocate of military preparedness, while Jefferson believed that a nation which had a strong army and war chest would be too easily tempted to use it. That debate has raged in America since. However, at the beginning of the second world war, the then conservative party, the Republicans, had adopted the Jeffersonian view and it was FDR and the Democrats arguing for armament and preparedness. The United States was terribly unprepared for war, but mobilized rapidly and won the day. Since then both parties have supported military preparedness and the political argument has been over the degree, but there are few Jeffersonians left when it comes to military preparedness.
The prerogative of preparedness weakens after a war is won; everyone expects some sort of peace dividend.
David Salzer Broder, was an American journalist, writing for The Washington Post for over 40 years. He was also an author, television news show pundit, and university lecturer.
