We WILL Each Pay $800 Per Person To Destroy Iraq
Which would your prefer to do? Spend this money on
your health care? Pay it towards your mortgage or credit card bill?
Maybe even take a week off work?
None of the above is an option, because our
government is going to use our $800 per person to bomb a country,
where 50% of the population is under the age of 15.
According form the latest report, the cost of the US war in Iraq
will be between $60 - $100 billions--or around $800 per each Americans
(assume they don't count undocumented immigrants).
Bush and Pentagon Wrangle Over War Budget Request
By DAVID E. ROSENBAUM
February 27, 2003, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/27/politics/27COST.html
WASHINGTON, Feb. 26 - The Pentagon and the White House budget office
are wrestling over how much money to seek from Congress to pay for a
war against Iraq and reconstruction costs between now and the end of
September.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Mitchell E. Daniels Jr., the
budget director, met with President Bush on war costs on Tuesday.
Officials from both agencies said no decision was made about the
amount to ask for.
Normally in these cases, the Defense Department wants a high figure,
the budget office wants a low one and the final budget request is
between. Representative Tom DeLay, Republican of Texas and the
majority leader, said Congress would support "whatever the
president deems necessary to fight this war."
Pentagon officials said today that the military's part of the cost
over the next seven months, through the fiscal year, would be at least
$60 billion. That would include food, pay, munitions and
transportation. It would also cover new costs of the military's
campaign against terrorists in Afghanistan and other countries and
domestic security missions like fighter patrols over New York and
Washington.
Billions more would be borne by the State Department, including $15
billion promised to Turkey and aid expected to be offered to Israel,
Jordan, Egypt and other countries.
The Pentagon estimates that it is already spending about $1.6 billion
in the campaign against terrorists and that it has spent $2.4 billion
so far for the buildup in the Persian Gulf region.
A senior Defense Department official who fielded budget questions from
reporters today disputed articles in several newspapers asserting that
Pentagon planners were pegging the cost in this fiscal year at $60
billion to $95 billion.
"Sixty billion is closer to the truth than 95 billion," the
official said. He said $95 billion was probably too high for the
Defense and State Department costs together.
Ari Fleischer, the White House spokesman, said no budget request to
cover a war would be made to Congress before military action began.
The Pentagon would also have big future expenses. Gen. Eric K.
Shinseki, the Army chief of staff, told Congress on Tuesday that
several hundred thousand troops would remain in Iraq to provide
security and relief aid.
The Persian Gulf war in 1991 cost $61 billion, which amounts to about
$80 billion in today's dollars. About 80 percent of the cost was
picked up by allies. The allied contribution in a war against Iraq is
expected to be much smaller.
The president did not include war costs in the budget he sent to
Congress this month. The budget projects deficits over $300 billion in
the current fiscal year. In the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, the
budget projects record figures in actual dollars but a somewhat
smaller deficit as a percentage of the national economy than some
deficits in the 1980's and early 1990's.
If there is a war, it will increase the deficit and could raise qualms
in Congress about approving the large tax cuts Mr. Bush wants.
Mr. Fleischer said the president would not back down from the tax
cuts. "The president believes one of the best ways to help the
economy grow is to provide the tax relief that can give a boost to the
economy and create jobs for the American people," Mr. Fleischer
said. "Whether or not the president authorizes the use of force,
the American people deserve to have jobs."
In a speech in the Senate today, Senator Robert C. Byrd, Democrat of
West Virginia and the most senior senator, criticized the
administration for not being more forthcoming about the cost of war.
"Our people and this Congress," Mr. Byrd said, "should
not have to wait until our troops are sent to fight to know what we
are facing, including the painful costs of this war in dollars,
political turmoil and blood."
