Rep. David Obey, Remembering Vietnam, Is Challenging Obama on Afghanistan

House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey has already highlighted the cost of President Obama's planned buildup of U.S. troops in Afghanistan by proposing a "war surtax" to pay for it, and when administration officials go to Capitol Hill to testify on Obama's strategy, they will likely face some uncomfortable questions, the New York Times reports today.

"I came here in '69, and I determined that I would give Nixon a year to see what he could do [about the war in Vietnam], because he had inherited the war, so I bit my tongue for a year," Mr. Obey told the Times, saying he had reminded Obama in a phone call of the mistakes of that earlier war. "I said the same thing with Obama."

While Obey's proposed war surtax is unlikely to pass, the Times says it is reminding the nation "of the high cost of an increasingly unpopular war." But the questions about Obama's plan, and a full airing of the cost issue may arise this week when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates appear before the appropriations committee.