For a moment, imagine if the Democratic leadership had asked, loudly and publicly, the following question:

"Mr. President, if we de-fund this war, will you withdraw the troops or leave them in harm's way with no funding?   Normally, the question wouldn't need to be asked, because everyone could safely assume that the President would care about the safety of our troops, and respect the Constitutional power of the purse held by Congress.  But in your case, we really need a definite answer because some of us are concerned you might entertain the notion of leaving the troops in Iraq as the money runs out, just out of petulance, stubbornness, spite, disrespect, and ignorance of repeated precedent for withdrawing troops when Congress withdraws funding support."

We're letting him hold the threat of abandoning our troops in the field without calling him on it, and while allowing him to blame us for it.  It's crazy.  I lost a lot of enthusiasm for Obama when he bought into the Republican frame that the Democrats would be playing chicken with the troops.  The only reason why chicken even comes up is because this President is capable of doing the unthinkable. Call him on it, dammit!

Yesterday, Americans purchased 375 million gallons of gasoline.

Yesterday, we also spent about $330 millon on the Iraq war.

Want our troops home sooner rather than later?  Add a $1 tax surcharge that will go down in proportion to our middle East military spending.  The troops would be home faster that you could say "I'm paying what for the Iraq war!!!??" This tax is easy to explain, patriotic, and best of all, the weight of those magnetic bumper stickers will reduce the milage of their SUV hosts, causing the "supporters" of the war to put a little bit more money where their mouths are.  

"But a gas tax is too regressive", you say, and you're right.  So let's extend this idea to get more gas-guzzling vehicles off the road, and help out those who need it most at the same time:  Use a gas tax to finance real-time government rebates for electric car purchases. Some numbers after the fold: