Dude, Where's Our $24 Billion?

In dollar figures, how much has the Iraq War cost the 8-state Intermountain American West? About $24 billion, when you add up the numbers from a new report by the nonpartisan National Priorities Project that is being released locally in Colorado today by the Colorado Progressive Coalition.

Let's put that $24 billion number into context. Since the war started, that's about $452 million a month, or $14.5 million a day sapped out of this 8-state region. Or, if you like your numbers more granular, it's about $604,166 an hour every hour since the war started, or about $10,000 every single minute since the war started, or about $166 every second since the war started - again, just from these 8 Mountain West states.

Think of it in per capita terms. There are about 6.7 million individual households in the 8-state Intermountain West. So, every household here has coughed up about $3,600 for the war. That's about $900 a year, or $67 a month taken by the Bush administration from every household in the region and thrown into Iraq.

Earlier this year when the Progressive States Network headed up the national state legislative push for resolutions against President Bush's Iraq escalation, the Denver Post published a solid piece on exactly what these enormous costs really mean for states out here.

Where is all the money going? Take a good look at Matt Taibbi's new investigative report for Rolling Stone to find out. It includes details of how the Bush administration flew $12 billion - or 360 tons - of cold, hard cash into Iraq and started doling it out to Republican cronies. $8 billion of that stash simply vanished - totally unaccounted for. Think of that again back in per capita terms. That's like taking $1,200 of the $3,600 Iraq surcharge that every household in the Intermountain West is sending to Iraq, and setting it on fire.

But here's the worst part of all. When Law-and-Order Democrats in Congress proposed to establish a Harry Truman-style bipartisan commission to investigate war profiteering, they were voted down by Republicans. When these same Law-and-Order Democrats proposed legislation to increase penalties and jail sentences for those convicted of war profiteering crimes, Republicans not only voted it down, but Vice President Dick Cheney himself appeared on the floor of the Senate to curse off bill sponsor Sen. Pat Leahy (D-VT). Cheney may originally be from out here in the West, but he still draws deferred salary from and still owns stock options in Halliburton - so his tirade wasn't a shock: He had his company to protect.

By the time you've finished this post, roughly another $10,000 has left the Rocky Mountain West's economy and headed over to Iraq. And thanks to Republicans who have stopped a crackdown on war profiteers and stymied a bipartisan investigation into the abuses, it's a safe bet that $10,000 is being happily deposited into one of the swelling offshore bank accounts of a Bush-connected private contractor - with little to no actual work being done in exchange.

Cross-posted at Working Assets

Comments

[anastasiabeaverhousen]

We have devolved into fascism. I see nothing left of democracy or even representative democracy.

Welcome to the Corporate States of America.

[only1Demvoter]

When will enough be enough?

When will these Neocon crooks be brought to justice?

When will somebody in charge DO something about this?
-ralph

[BBackSoon]

The real people in charge are CEO's and the like. The big money Corporations are running America. They just needed these weasels to make it happen 'Legally'. That is by eroding our laws and our government in a way that they can do what is best for their bottom line.

It is a great time to be rich.

Viva la Revolution!!!

[jhNY]

Golly, it's almost gotten very near the point where somebody ought to say something harsh about this sorry state of affairs, maybe even wagging an accusatory finger at the same time. Perhaps a committee should be formed and meetings should be held. Maybe it's already happening in a secret location.

Of course all this terrible corruption is a great reason to organize and elect more brave Democrats, who so far have been unyielding in their efforts to stop the war, first by cutting off all funding, next by opening investigations of administration officials in charge of contracts under oath, and let's not forget the centerpiece of their action list: the impeachment of the president and the vice president. Oops, I almost forgot-- the Democrats have done none of these things, and won't, because they've calculated it's better to have all this Republican corruption for election fodder next year than to actually put an end to it now and maybe even the Iraq war crime itself. Only a few more service men and women, maybe a couple hundred or so, and a huge pile of Iraqi citizens, will die while their clever strategy plays out.

And then we'll have lots of democrats in office, only this time with spines and convictions and vision. Also, pigs will fly.

In the meantime, my fellow Americans, don't forget that after a serious hand-wringing session, you've got to use lotion, or your beautiful hands will chap.

[jesusquintana]

Excellent. Only I don't think the Dems are using it for election fodder. I think they're in on it, and everything we (the ignorant masses) are allowed to know is simply political theater. Bread and circuses.

[jhNY]

Winning elections mean you get to stand next to the money, where naturally enough, you look really attractive to lobbyists and campaign donors who expect something besides speeches for their "support". And heck, being so close to the money and all, it's almost impossible for some of it not to crawl into your pocket, or your friends' pockets, or your family members' pockets. I think that's what "capital migration" means to most professional politicians-- of either party.

It's just with the Democrats, for a while you get to hope for something better before they make you apeshit mad for trusting them, whereas with the Republicans you know just what you're getting right from the start: screwed over at the behest of and for the benefit of the oligarchy and their apologists. Vote early and often for the candidate of your choice.

[hopeless277]

And we, the peasants, are helpless to stop it. The Republican Party will not be happy until this nation is completely destroyed monetarily, militarily, and physically. At this point, anyone who calls themselves a Republican is either in on the crime or is a christian(by definition too stupid to know what is being done in their name ). This once great country destroyed by a frat boy and his pet Dick. How utterly ironic.

[maddogbitesback]

Bush was a crook from a crooked family when the first election was held. A lot of people really did vote for him. They did. Let them assumethe debt and the costs to the others. And don't say - oh we didn't know. Any fool knew. It just wasn't important. The history of the family was known- lots of publicity. The history of Bush was known. All those death penalties and not sorrow. No compassion. How could anyone believe Bush who dodged the draft and the National Guard and was an inside trader who got away with a kin's ransome while Martha Stewart got six months for forty thousand dollars which she wouldn't have noticed if someone hadn't told her about it. Gore - trashed by misquoting him. He did not say he invented the internet. Kerry - medals, injuries and photos and testimonials of his time in Vietnam - destroyed by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Almost half of America got what it deserved. The world wasn't asked.