Your Tax Dollars at Work

The PBS NewsHour aired a nicely done report yesterday on the much publicized estimate by two noted economists that the Iraq war may ultimately cost the United States up to $2 trillion. The segment did a good job breaking down and explaining the estimate, published by Columbia’s Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard’s Linda Bilmes in 2005 and 2006. Where the report was lacking, perhaps, is discussing what the cost might mean down the road, though it did point out that the money we’ve spent already on Iraq, nearly $430 billion as of this moment, would have paid several times over for rebuilding every school in the United States or would have made a nice down payment on the “unsolvable” problems with the Social Security system.

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4 Replies to “Your Tax Dollars at Work”

  1. Interesting. Similarly on NPR last week I caught a discussion about the federal budget bill that’s in the works. It apparently doesn’t offer an estimate for what Iraq will cost next year. Funny that, since budgets are all about estimates. Anyway, Bush will rely on emergency spending bills instead, again. The Democrats seem willing to let him continue doing this…

  2. Wow…two trillion dollars. That’s a lot of dough. If Joe Sixpack had seen that price tag back in 2003 maybe there wouldn’t have been an invasion of Iraq and a little more attention would have been paid to the guys who did 9/11. C’est la vie. What is interesting is how thin-skinned our leaders were when Jimmy Carter criticized their foreign policy the other day, getting all piqued over the guy calling like he sees it.
    The only apparent gift this president has is one for being a screw-up; a walking, talking plague upon the land. Sorry day when he came down the pike. And it is not even close to being over.

  3. Beyond screw-up, this is an administration of criminals, organized crime masquerading as government. US Attorneys: power trumps justice for these clowns, with no compunction, but they’ve politicized other departments recently – mid-level management of the department of the Interior was replaced by politi-goons so that all signicant decisions (build roads for logging companies, give away grazing and mineral rights, land development decisions, etc.) were reviewed by a politico-manager before being allowed through.
    Abramov: slush fund, money for action, there would have been many more convictions to date if the DOJ had not been actively delaying or cancelling investigations of their boys.
    Iraq is now looking like an excuse to back Sunni interests for the Saudis, as it’s revealed this week that the US has been quietly funding the military of one side of the Islamic civil war going on there.
    And after the Oakland maze tanker fire – note the lower roadway did not need replacement despite the higher burning temps of gasoline vs. jet fuel – I’m rethinking my estimate of the 9/11 conspiracy nuts and the tower ‘demolitions’.
    And no one is screaming in the streets.

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