Excess-profits tax on defense contractors during wartime is long overdue

[OmahaBlueDog]

5. Bigger picture -- we need a complete overhaul of Pentagon procurement & contracting

The Boeing v. Northrup Grumman fuel tanker debacle clearly shows this. The bid process needs to clearly be re-examined, and congress critters with vested interests in their district in obtaining or keeping work in their district need to be excluded from the process.

I'm not against a “steeply graduated excess-profits tax.” I'd start, however, by vastly strengthening the audit and oversight arms of both the CBO and the Pentagon. There's lots of waste and fraud in defense contracting, and it's long-past time to go after it.

Bush/Cheney (or the Congress in 2002) should have enacted a "war tax." Such taxes serve many purposes. They pay for the conflict (obviously); they make everyone (in a small way) share the sacrifice being borne by our troops; and the tax gives everyone incentive to see that the war is prosecuted quickly.