Guns and Butter

In fact, the U.S. is spending relatively little on defense by historic wartime standards, and that's including the $192 billion in 2007 to fund the efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. It's true that overall defense spending, in dollars adjusted for inflation, is higher than it was during the 1990s. And thank heaven for that. Defense spending as a share of the economy in the Clinton years dipped to its lowest level since 1940, as we lived under the illusion of a "peace dividend" while al Qaeda was gaining strength.

read the entire WSJ article

There basic argument is that a war surtax is not needed.