Posted on 08/23/2010 9:06:44 AM PDT by markomalley
Expect to hear a lot about how much the Iraq war cost in the days ahead from Democrats worried about voter wrath against their unprecedented spending excesses.
The meme is simple: The economy is in a shambles because of Bush's economic policies and his war in Iraq. As American Thinker's Randall Hoven points out, that's the message being peddled by lefties as diverse as former Clinton political strategist James Carville, economist Joseph Stiglitz, and The Nation's Washington editor, Christopher Hayes.
The key point in the mantra is an alleged $3 trillion cost for the war. Well, it was expensive to be sure, in both blood and treasure, but, as Hoven notes, the CBO puts the total cost at $709 billion. To put that figure in the proper context of overall spending since the war began in 2003, Hoven provides this handy CBO chart showing the portion of the annual deficit attributable to the conflict:
But there is much more to be said of this data and Hoven does an admirable job of summarizing the highlights of such an analysis:
* Obama's stimulus, passed in his first month in office, will cost more than the entire Iraq War -- more than $100 billion (15%) more.
* Just the first two years of Obama's stimulus cost more than the entire cost of the Iraq War under President Bush, or six years of that war.
* Iraq War spending accounted for just 3.2% of all federal spending while it lasted.
* Iraq War spending was not even one quarter of what we spent on Medicare in the same time frame.
* Iraq War spending was not even 15% of the total deficit spending in that time frame. The cumulative deficit, 2003-2010, would have been four-point-something trillion dollars with or without the Iraq War.
* The Iraq War accounts for less than 8% of the federal debt held by the public at the end of 2010 ($9.031 trillion).
* During Bush's Iraq years, 2003-2008, the federal government spent more on education that it did on the Iraq War. (State and local governments spent about ten times more.)
Just some handy facts to recall during coming weeks as Obama and his congressional Democratic buddies get more desperate to put the blame for their spending policies on Bush and the war in Iraq. For more from Hoven, go here.
I’ll bet Katie Couric, 60 Minutes, Michael Moore and Dateline NBC will be all over this!!
war is a dirty business but when you look at all of the money spent in the past 9 years related to defense who is getting the bulk of the cash?
If that isn’t government stimulus of an economy then I don’t know what is
The actual, documented numbers are uniformly far lower.
Just emailed this to everyone in my personal address book.
I have heard that most of the TARP expenditures, given to banks, was already repaid with interest.
If so, how do those repayments figure into the budget balance figures? Do they make a latter deficit look smaller relative to the year in which they were doled out?
NOW they're worried about!!??? When their political hides are on the line??
They should have thought about this when they could have been more responsible with the taxpayer's money. As we say in Texas, it's too late to shut the corral after the cattle done got out!!!
*Bump*
These are great numbers to have handy.
That most defense money is actually an attempt at stimulus and not defense ... and that it has failed miserably as a stimulus ... is the best argument against any stimulus.
Too bad the “Stimulous” isn’t actually doing any stimulating [except for crooked fat cats].
Great graphic, and information!
BUMP!
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