Ezra Klein...You're Beautiful When You're Angry

Ezra Klein totally unloaded yesterday on the deficit hawks who have been largely or completely silent on paying for the $30 BILLION it's going to cost to send the additional troops to Afghanistan.  Here's the money quote:

...this town is packed full of deficit hawks. Where are the editorial pages on this? Where's the Peterson Institute? David Walker? The Committee for a Responsible Budget?

Update 12/2: I was appropriately corrected by Maya MacGuineas, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget's executive director, for missing this, and this.  As Brad DeLong would say, that's a smackdown.  That doesn't excuse the other so-called deficit hawks either for not engaging or, worse, running in the other direction on the war costs, but it does mean that CRFB is...and...was on the case.

As reported by The Hill, over the weekend, many members of Congress from both parties -- including some who claim to be virulent deficit reducers -- came out against paying for the additional troops in any way.  Most claimed that a tax increase like the one proposed by House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-WI) would be unwise in the midst of a recession even though (1) the recession is likely already over and (2) there likely will be 4 to 6 consecutive quarters of growth by the time it went into effect.  And none embraced even an undefined spending cut as an alternative.

One final -- and very snarky -- note...The Hill reported that one of the relatively specific spending cuts that was suggested came from Senator John McCain (R-AZ), who suggested paying for the additional troops "...through a freeze on discretionary spending — specifically, holding 2009 appropriations at 2008 levels, which he said would generate $60 billion." 

Someone needs to tell the senator that fiscal 2009 ended at midnight September 30, 2009, that is more than two months ago.