DOES "BALANCED IN FIVE YEARS" INCLUDE THE WAR, MR. PRESIDENT?
The President spoke again on Iraq with the same speech he's given several times. To him, the costs of the war continue to be small compared to the "catastrophic consequences" to us of premature withdrawal.
Which is fine, because sunk costs are sunk costs. Yet, he continues to fire-side chat conflagration-side chat with "us", without mention of what he is asking in sacrifice for his plans. It's still the "war"-on-the-side talk of the Rummy era, "The GOP's Costless War" as some activists have it. What's more, he still shuffles to the tune of a balanced budget in five years, but I don't think that figure includes the "war", so where is the good cheer in that ditty?
RIDDLE ME THIS
Here is a link to the Congressional Research Service Report that was done in January/February to tally just the direct costs of the entire "GWOT" as appropriated, which come to $745 Billion, including the current FY request. I've tallied the costs of the entire modern history of the New Deal "Welfare" program to $734 Billion (in 1996 dollars). [Separately, this report says that the Bush Administration may have been ignoring the laws on reporting costs ...]
I found the President's comments on people trying to put home-state monies into the emergency supplemental as totally self-serving and not "Presidential" in the least. Depsite his "95 plus bird flu" foot-stomping from last session, there remains the question of the "emergency" $700 Million to unabashed porkster Senator Trent Lott.
THE FINE PRINT?
It seems to me that quite a few intellectuals might rather ignore the costs of "war". I believe that is a mistake, from at least two different perspectives. If I'm a little slow in following AS today, it is because I'm working on a wider tally of these items.
The $745 billion translates into about $2,500 per capita, which makes the GOP's bungling of this conflict more expensive than all wars except WWII. ALL: Revolutionary, 1812, Mexican, Civil, Spanish-Am, WWI, Korea, Vietnam, First Gulf, by Prof. Nordhaus's figures.
For a family of 4, that would translate into about $10,000. For the median household, that would be roughly $6,600, and circa 11-12% of median household net worth (SIPP survey).
