If You Have To Ask You Can't Afford It
by digby
I don't know why we can't talk about this:
The boost in troop levels in Iraq has increased the cost of war there and in Afghanistan to $12 billion a month, and the total for Iraq alone is nearing a half-trillion dollars, congressional analysts say.
All told, Congress has appropriated $610 billion in war-related money since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror assaults, roughly the same as the war in Vietnam. Iraq alone has cost $450 billion.
The figures come from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, which provides research and analysis to lawmakers.
For the 2007 budget year, CRS says, the $166 billion appropriated to the Pentagon represents a 40 percent increase over 2006.
The Vietnam War, after accounting for inflation, cost taxpayers $650 billion, according to separate CRS estimates.
The $12 billion a month "burn rate" includes $10 billion for Iraq and almost $2 billion for Afghanistan, plus other minor costs. That's higher than Pentagon estimates earlier this year of $10 billion a month for both operations. Two years ago, the average monthly cost was about $8 billion.
Among the reasons for the higher costs is the cost of repairing and replacing equipment worn out in harsh conditions or destroyed in combat.
But the estimates call into question the Pentagon's estimate that the increase in troop strength and intensifying pace of operations in Baghdad and Anbar province would cost only $5.6 billion through the end of September.
There's some idea that it's unseemly to question the vast amount of money that's being spent on this occupation and I don't get why. There's nothing wrong with helping the Iraqi people, but I think it's fair to say at this point that we aren't actually helping anyone with this absurd burn rate of three billion dollars a week. (I suspect the Iraqis would really like it if we'd stop "helping" too.)
And that failed, spendthrift fool has the utter gall to say stuff like this:
Next week, my Administration will release a report called the Mid-Session Review, which will provide you with an update on our Nation's progress in meeting the goal of a balanced budget. We know from experience that when we pursue policies of low taxes and spending restraint, the economy grows, tax revenues go up, and the deficit goes down.
Democratic leaders in Congress want to take our country down a different track. They are working to bring back the failed tax-and-spend policies of the past. The Democrats' budget plan proposes $205 billion in additional domestic spending over the next five years and includes the largest tax increase in history. No nation has ever taxed and spent its way to prosperity. And I have made it clear that I will veto any attempt to take America down this road.
During the 2004 campaign there was a period when John Kerry had a line that said "if we can build firehouses in Iraq, we should be able to build firehouses in America" to huge applause. I assume that it had focus-grouped well, but during those heady days of "spreadin' liberdee" it was subject to criticism from the otherwise thoroughly chauvinistic Republicans as being unpatriotic or "ungenerous" (which is really funny coming from them) and so he stopped.
The argument is much more straightforward now. Here's just one example of what Bush proposed to cut even as he insists that we continue to fund this farce in Iraq:
The Bush administration plans to cut funding for veterans' health care two years from now - even as badly wounded troops returning from Iraq could overwhelm the system.
Bush is using the cuts, critics say, to help fulfill his pledge to balance the budget by 2012.
After an increase sought for next year, the Bush budget would turn current trends on their head. Even though the cost of providing medical care to veterans has been growing rapidly - by more than 10 percent in many years - White House budget documents assume consecutive cutbacks in 2009 and 2010 and a freeze thereafter.
Americans have every right to be sick of this war, for all the reasons we discuss here and all over the country every day. But they have a right to be appalled that we are throwing this gigantic sum of money into that sinkhole too, even as we see Americans dying from .... sinkholes, and all kinds of neglected infrastructure, bad health care, environmental degradation, tainted food supply, natural disasters and a host of other ills that only the government can deal with --- and isn't. Now they are about to start with their tired mantra of "tax and spend," and insist on cutting even more necessary programs after they've run up a trillion dollar debt for an unnecessary war and enriched their defense contractor owners beyond their wildest dreams.
Americans have a right to be angry and have their politicians express that anger for them. This bloody, Iraq money pit is infuriating. There's nothing shameful about admitting that.
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