Members Of Congress, Activists Use Tax Day To Call For End To Afghanistan War

To mark Tax Day, a bipartisan group of legislators and activists launched a campaign to show average Americans how much of their money was used this year to continue funding the Afghanistan war.

Progressive advocacy group Rethink Afghanistan created a Cost of War Calculator, which allows Americans to determine the amount of money they personally paid through taxes to continue funding the presence of US troops in Afghanistan. Along with several members of Congress, religious leaders and veterans, the campaign included a press conference and a chance for taxpayers to send their representatives IOU requests for the amount of their wages spent on the war, now entering its tenth year.

Bolstering the significance of Tax Day are the recent debates in Congress over federal budget proposals, as well as burgeoning presidential election campaigns on both sides. "I think the budget fights have drawn everyone's attention to how we're spending money here," said Derrick Crowe, political director at Brave New Foundation, which operates Rethink Afghanistan. "A lot of the time, when people are talking about the costs of war, there are these huge numbers - when you talk in terms of billions and trillions, people don't have a tangible understanding of what that means. With this [IOU] tool ... you'll be able to see what you paid. You'll be able to understand immediately what you could have spent."

The group of Congress members joining in the campaign include Reps. Raul Grijalva (D-Arizona), Walter Jones (R-North Carolina), Sheila Jackson Lee (D-California) and Dana Rohrabacher (R-California).

"There are very few national needs that rise to the level of ending our costly, destructive and increasingly pointless wars and April 18 reminds us just where our money is going despite our own preference to bring our troops home," Grijalva said Thursday during a press conference. "This remains a moral, fiscal and national security disaster that is draining our treasury and for what? The American people have been asking that question for years without a satisfactory answer and I think it's time we answered them by bringing our troops home."

More