Iraq Government Has $79 Billion in Unspent Cash

New York Times:

The soaring price of oil will leave the Iraqi government with a cumulative budget surplus of as much as $79 billion by year's end an American federal oversight agency has concluded in an analysis released on Tuesday.

The unspent windfall, which covers surpluses from oil sales from 2005 through 2008, appears likely to put an uncomfortable new focus on the approximately $48 billion in American taxpayer money devoted to rebuilding Iraq since the American-led invasion.

Over all, the report from the Government Accountability Office estimates, Iraqi oil revenue from 2005 through the end of this year will amount to at least $156 billion. And in an odd financial twist, large amounts of the surplus money is sitting in an American bank in New York -- nearly $10 billion at the end of 2007, with more expected this year, when the accountability office estimates a skyrocketing surplus.

The report was requested by two senior senators, Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan, and John W. Warner, Republican of Virginia, and on Tuesday they were quick to express strong dissatisfaction over the contrast between American spending on reconstruction and the weak record of spending by Iraq itself, in spite of the colossal surpluses.

The senators pointed out in a statement that in 2007, for example, Iraq actually spent only 28 percent of its $12 billion dollar reconstruction budget according to the accountability office - and even that number could overstate the success rate in most of Iraq, since $2 billion of the spending took place in relatively peaceful confines of the northern Kurdish region.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[proudamericanblkwoman]

OMG! I can't believe I left off one of the most America losses, the lives and injuries of soldiers. I would be remiss if I didn't include the Iraqi lives lost as well.

[proudamericanblkwoman]

please pardon my errors w/usage and structure. as you can see, i'm pretty passionate about this abuse and the misguided voters who will vote for McBush.

[proudamericanblkwoman]

I know you all realize this, but I have to say it anyway. To tag onto my previous email... Our taxes at work...

Americans taxpayers got out of this deal:
Foreclosed homes
Lost jobs
High gas prices
High food prices
Declining health due to stress from the above - no health benefits to treat declining health due to the above.
Declining education

American banks and businesses:
Lost revenues and profits
Bankruptcy due to the above

America:
Debt to other countries
Bankrupt cities and distressed communities due to vacancies and foreclosures
Unaddressed environmental issues
Crumbling infrastructures
Increased unemployment rate
Increased crime rate
Less secured due to us not addressing those who actually are terriosts and pose terriost threats

Those 25 Iraq War Profiteers:
My calculations of those companies that show profits: Close to $31 Billion profits

Iraq:
$79.436 billion profits

To those working class Repugs who are losing their homes and jobs while holding their cars together with McCain and Bush bumper stickers, please open your eyes and see that you are not one of them. They are only using you for your vote to keep them rich and happy.

To those Repugs who are earning enough to keep your home, car etc. and enjoy dinner and wine at restaurants as you think America's hard times does not affect you...business revenues are down and crime is up, just to name a few - it does affect you.

[proudamericanblkwoman]

$79 billion surplus...plus $436M interest income on oil profits from a US bank.
Please, please, please don't be fooled into believing this is Iraq's fault or that they are taking advantage of us. This is ALL about those 25+ big companies (most are friends or affliates of Bush and Cheney) that are contacted and paid by the US Gov w/our taxes to rebuild Iraq and as well as Iraq, profit from the oil (see 7/25 the article on Huff Post - Iraq War Profiteers: 25 Companies Who Benefit From The War). We can't let them spin or this one or continue to try to deceive us by deflecting blame onto Iraq.

[getoffmedz]

Just wait until the U.S. is out and the Iraqi figure out they can actually be a major factor in the Middle East.

No wonder the Saudi's want them broken into three warring little pieces?

[pkohan]

So I tried doing a diary on this last night at DailyKos - http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/8/5/213243/7888/185/563243 - but apparently people were more concerned about Obama quieting a heckler at a rally and his response to McCain's "Maverick" ad to care about where the money is going - down the rabbit hole.

Feel free to check out the link.

Remember what Deep Throat said - "follow the money."

Never was a truer maxim stated.

[SweetSydney]

kay once said she didn't like to interact with me because I get "personal".

Lately her theme is that all conservatives are stupid.

At least she's not getting personal.

[BronxBorn]

Off topic and "personal".

[OneVoiceInACrowd]

I would think 'personal' would mean individual, and the use of 'all' is inclusive of all individual conservatives.

[indypete]

Man, you just keep on proving the liberal point of view is correct. Well done.

[OneVoiceInACrowd]

McCain is going to be upset, this was his stash of $100 Billion that he was going to produce for us to balance the budget.

Not only is it our oil under their land, but our money in our banks. When will people understand?

[mimsnpips]

How do you figure it is in "our banks"? I agree it is our money, (though many disagree). We laid out the cash to 'free' Iraq. We deserve to get it back but the administration may have other plans for "our money".

[rocketJsquirrel]

they didn't ask us to "free" them, and our politicians just said they'd take the oil to pay for this fiasco, but the Iraqis never said that was the case. sorry, but just because W and McC made up some stuff about using Iraqi oil to pay for our choice to destroy a country doesn't make it so. it would be nice if they'd pay for all of this, but Im not so sure we should expect them to.

[theplaintrutho1]

I really can't believe what the two of you just wrote:

"Not only is it our oil under their land, but our money..." and "I agree it is our money..."
Better read R. Sus kind's new book about untruths.

When the two of you make bad investments like Ralph Kramden (HoneyMooners) in an hot-dog stand beneath a highway, do you expect to be compensated for such bad investment?

[GoodDay]

The US dollar is looked upon with disdain throughout Europe, due to its weak value caused by the huge United States debt which is largely a result of the Iraq War. The weak dollar will probably be the most tragic consequence of the brutal Bush presidency. We used to have a very strong currency.

[frappe]

Our stupid "free trade" policy, along with increased globalization and outsourcing, doesn't help either. When you are the only country on the planet who practices "free trade" while allowing your trade partners to raise all sorts of barriers and protections for their respective economies, the result is a huge trade deficit.

[rocketJsquirrel]

And WHY isn't mcsame being hammered on this? HE said that this money would pay for the mess we created in Iraq! This is supposed to be his strength - make him explain!

[1NacreousImprimatur]

This is an accounting mish-mash for anyone who understands the first thing about economics.

First, it is a static projection based on several variable assumption that they have removed the variability in order to arrive at a notional number.

Second, it assumes that Iraq will not allocate any of those notional monies to any other purpose, an absurdity on its face.
Libs see an unspent capital resource and think it is a corruption. Rest assured libs, when the bureaucracy is up and running in Iraq it will disappear like a magician's rabbit...

[smitallica]

So that's a good thing? The Bush administration has created a corrupt, bureaucratic image of itself in the Middle East. Only allied with Iran.
Perfect. What a glorious victory.

[superbust]

Once you start throwing around the general term "lib" I realize that you are a id-oi-tic fo-ol.

[theplaintrutho1]

Have you ever heard of "the industrial military complex"? Do you know how it works? Of course you do, and the answer to both questions are yes, because I read intelligence in your comment.
So let's take a look at what this whole thing is all about:
The looting of the US treasury and the tax-payers that contribute to it.

You are obviously not a stupid person, so why comment as one with an one-sided overview? They can't out right steal Iraqi bucks, but can damn well steal treasury dollars with hospitals and facilities they never finish, with showers that kill our men & women serving, with about $30 billion suddenly missing, with no-bid contracts to pals willing to kick-back millions for those same contracts, etc.

Heck, I remember reports of tax-payer bucks being spent on $18.00 light-bulbs and $300 plus dollar toilet fixtures and we weren't even at war back then.

God please, when will we as a people grow-up? God, when will we lose our bragging and begin to understand we are a part of all of this world? God will you have to bring us to our knees before we began to believe it's not all about us, but about what we do with these blessings you have bestowed upon us?

[Paris68]

Yes, anyone looking at recent history would never accuse the Iraqi government of corruption.

[mimsnpips]

Good to see a bipartisan duo of senators requested the investigation. But now, what to do? I think we should get the $$ refunded to us but many disagree.

[kay]

I'm hoping President O can make it fashionable to be smart in America again.

I think aspiration begins at the top. If children learn that the President can, oh, use a three syllable word, or operate a tire gauge, and that President isn't successfully vilified by a bunch of thuggish conservative lunkheads as an "elitist" , those children might dare to aspire to smartness.

I think conservatives "celebrating the stupid" probably trickled down.

We USED to admire smart people. Now we insist they "aren't like us". I'm not really signing on to that. Conservatives can. Maybe it's true. Maybe smart people "aren't LIKE conservatives". I don't know that it should be the national theme though.

"The dumber the better" isn't a good long-term national strategy.

[superbust]

Elitism is the belief or attitude that those individuals who are considered members of the elite — a select group of people with outstanding personal abilities, intellect, or wealth, specialized training or experience, or other distinctive attributes — are those whose views on a matter are to be taken the most seriously or carry the most weight; whose views and/or actions are most likely to be constructive to society as a whole; or whose extraordinary skills, abilities or wisdom render them especially fit to govern

Now who in their right mind would want someone fitting the above description as President?

[kay]

I'm not threatened by the Senator from Illinois. I think he's enough "like me" and I went to a mediocre state school :)

Maybe conservatives lack confidence. Still, should we AS A NATION dumb down to LEVEL THE PLAYING FIELD?

They could get smarter, right? "A rising tide lifts all boats...."

[blaqntelligence]

That should be the response each and every time the subject is raised about whether Senator Obama is an elitist.

Of course the "Family Values" minions/morons have twisted and bastardized the meaning to the point it's unrecognizable.

[smitallica]

Right on superbust. I love the charge of "elitism" from the Repubs. As if wanting an intelligent person to make huge decisions is a bad thing.

Like Bush isn't the poster boy for old-school, blue-blood elitism (Andover, Yale, AND Harvard?). But when they use "elitist," it's code for "intellectual," which they then equate with "effete" or "snob" or, horror of horrors, "French.".

So who wants to be governed by a president who thinks that smarter people's opinions and ideas should carry more weight than stupid people's?

(Hand shoots up in Arnold Horseshack fashion)

[SweetSydney]

On what do you base your contention that conservatives celebrate the stupid? Because Bar-ry said so?

kay, by now you know that Bar-ry lies like a rug. What Bar-ry says today is not what Bar-ry will say tomorrow.

You seem a little strident of late. Getting nervous about this race?

[rocketJsquirrel]

most recent basis for contention that conservatives celebrate the stupid - see Sturgis. and let me know how ms.mcc does in that buffalo chips contest. which phallic symbol will she use for her talent? standard banana? local corn cob? elitist seedless cucumber?

[theplaintrutho1]

Your question tells all that's needed to know about stupidity. Hahahaha.

[rocketJsquirrel]

Great post!
Disturbing the the repubs are running another intellectual light weight, although this time the candidate has even less class than the last.

[WFV]

Budget modification time!

[gorgol]

Just a few more months...and hopefully this treachery against our country going on for almost eight years...will "slow down"..it won't stop...and I want Justice...I want some of those "billions" we're going to save when we get out of Iraq spent in criminal investigations of the Bush White House...I don't care how long it takes...this is not something we should "close the book" on...and move on..we owe it to ourselves and our future generations...