to find an example of Democrats' chutzpah.

It looks like the Democrats have found some spending to be concerned about. As more and more Democrats become squeamish about Afghanistan, they've decided it's time to get serious about controlling costs.

Gibbs said that the subject of a war tax on the wealthy, proposed by a handful of leading Democrats, has not come up yet in the president's extensive war council meetings. But the idea, though unlikely to pass Congress, is one way for Democrats who are coming to dislike the war in greater numbers to challenge the president to confront the cost of any escalation.

To be fair to Democrats, they also imposed tax raises to help control costs on their pet project, like a cosmetic surgery tax that will pay $5 billion out of $1.8 trillion
$5,000,000,000
__________________________

$1,800,000,000,000
It's worth pointing out that Obama's decision, which is leaning toward 34,000 or so troops, is probably bowing to pressure regarding the costs of the war. But when the Democrats start feeling twinges of guilt about treating the federal government like a limitless credit card, they try to withdraw from the rich (their debit card?)

Still, it's likely the threats are hollow political posturing. We have seen Democrats flex their purse string muscles to try to influence war policy, it was so politically unpopular that they didn't dare try it, despite how unpopular the Iraq war was at the time. At least they threaten to flex SOME muscle once in awhile.