Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke unveiled a new plan to boost veterans services. The most fundamental of the pro-veteran steps would be to end the Afghanistan and Iraq "Forever Wars.” Other planks are intended to modernize the Department of Veterans Affairs, close up its currently severe staffing shortages (especially in medical care), and provide a "comprehensive approach" to veterans' mental health. O’Rourke’s plan would double Alzheimer's research, and establish a path to citizenship for immigrants that joined the armed services.
But it's a new proposed tax to establish a trust fund for veterans of each future war, as each is declared, that is gaining the most attention:
At the start of any newly authorized war, a new trust fund will be established within the General Fund of the Treasury for future veterans of that war. [...]
Under Beto’s plan, every new [trust fund] would be paired with enactment of new war tax. This new tax would serve as a reminder of the incredible sacrifice made by those who serve and their families.
The families of current Armed Forces members or veterans of the Armed Forces would be exempt from the tax. Other taxpayers would pay at a progressive rate, with households making less than $30,000 per year paying $25 per war, but those earning more than $200,000 per year paying $1,000 each.
This isn't a new idea from O'Rourke (he twice proposed similar legislation while in Congress) nor is it a radical idea in general.
As CNN reporter Eric Bradner points out, before the Afghanistan and Iraq wars the United States historically levied additional taxes during times of war. A Democratic proposal to do so for Iraq and Afghanistan was rebuffed by Republicans, part of the general new notion that those wars would be so trivial as to be without expense, for this nation and its taxpayers.
An explicit tax on each new war might, at least, create new clarity in the public mind. It seems almost banal at this point for pundits or bar-goers to advocate for bombing or invading nations, whether as "surgical" strikes or "shock and awe"-styled mass destruction. Advocates are often eager to send their neighbors' children to war; if risking the lives of other Americans is seen as so small a price, perhaps risking the lives of other Americans and paying one thousand dollars would cause a moment's hesitation.