$189 Billion More for Iraq? Put it on the Credit Card...Oops! The Card Was Maxed Out

We found out this week the Bush administration wants $189 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan for next year, the most that they have ever asked for in one year. This is on top of the $460 billion for the DOD's regular budget. The war is costing about half a million dollars per minute. The total cost of just the Iraq war is around $455 billion so far, not counting this newest request.

Don't worry; we can just put it on the national credit card. Until yesterday, that credit card, also known as the national debt, was hitting its legal ceiling. Unlike the rest of us who finally max out on our credit cards, the Federal government can just keep borrowing more. The Senate raised the debt ceiling from $8.965 trillion to $9.815 trillion. This is the fifth time the debt ceiling has been raised under the Bush administration and in just over six years, the Bush administration has raised the national debt by almost $4 trillion.

These numbers are mind-numbing and depressing but, whether you agree with the war or not, one would assume that the troops are getting all the equipment and food that they need. Hate to break it to you, but we aren't even doing that with all this money. Just a few weeks ago, a soldier died in Iraq and his parents were talking to NPR. After they told of their sorrow, they also told of how he and his other fellow soldiers could not get enough war fighting supplies and even underwear and socks. The parents, even through their grief, were concerned about the other soldiers in his unit who didn't have relatives to send them supplies that they needed. This soldier was not based in some obscure area...he was in Mosul. All these high contractor billings are sucking the lifeblood out of the supplemental budget with little oversight. I have documented many of these stories in my book, Betraying Our Troops: The Destructive Results of Privatizing War, and I am very disheartened to still hear the troops and the parents of the troops say that they don't have enough basic equipment to fight or even to protect themselves.

Now that I have totally depressed you for the day, here is some potential good news. Yesterday, Senator Claire McCaskill and Senator James Webb, along with all the other Democratic freshmen senators, got an amendment unanimously passed by the Senate to create a new Commission on Wartime Contracting. This new commission was inspired by Harry Truman's wartime committee that investigated WWII contractor fraud which saved over $100 billion in today's dollars. Now it has to pass the House and, more importantly, appoint people to this commission who really want to shake things up, take names and get some of our money back from fraudulent contractor billings. This new commission must also seriously investigate the deep problems that the military has had using private contractors in a war zone in numbers never seen before.

This is still an uphill battle and the powerful war service industry will fight any serious attempts at investigation. But this, along with the media's new interest in Blackwater and other contractors, may start peeling back the layers of fraud and waste in this war. If we can successfully expose even just part of the fraud that has been going on in this war, fasten your seatbelts because you may see one of the biggest scandals of our generation.

If you want to know more, go to my website, www.followthemoneyproject.org.

Comments

[nippersdad]

Dina:

I hear you, but I just don't think you are going to get any traction until it actually hits these people in the wallet. The numbers mean nothing to them unless they can somehow be painted with the words socialism or cadillac mama. They are all on either a testosterone high or are hiding under their beds from people trying to force them into burkhas.

A commission would be great (especially with Bunnatine in it), but I also think that a 125% war tax on those who got the tax cuts to pay down its' costs would have a more effective impetus on fiscal policy than relying on Legislators to actually think about what they are doing. Perhaps a draft to replace the mercenaries would also produce a good fiscal/moral debate.

[realitytrumpsbull]

Oh, why not bump it up 5 or 6 orders of magnitude, or, be honest, and call it Carte Blanche? I mean, what's 18 or 19 octillion
promissory dollars between international
megamoguls? What? Accountability to the voters?
They're LITTLE PEOPLE!!!! Piss on them! On to the oilfields! Chaaaaaaarrrrrge!

Didya catch the part where people were talking
about forced divestiture, and right after
that, Halliburton moved their corporate
headquarters to Doobiestan? Interesting times
we live in...

[Mair1]

"appoint people to this commission who really want to shake things up"

Do WE get to nominate people's representatives for the panel?

I nominate Ms. Bunnatine Greenhouse. She knows the contracting process and I would trust her to looks out for our interests. Besides, a certain justice would be served simply by her inclusion.

[nippersdad]

I wholeheartedly second your nomination. That poor woman got screwed trying to just do her job; it would be an incredible irony if we could somehow have her running the show!

[BUSHsurvivor]

It was the conservatives who were concerned about the debt, right? So they vote for this schmuck twice and this is what we got...bigger government & high debt! Nice decisions! Now go to your rooms for the next 8 years or so!

[ScooterLiddy]

The dollar is tanking. Why?

Our national debit is $9T. We have a built-in structural annual trade deficit approaching $1T. Foreigners own more than 25% of our debt.

Things that can't go on forever don't.

This war is the end of America.

[CitizenE]

Insult to injury, let our kids and grandchildren pay for it. Congress should not be allowed to fund the war without the American populace voting to pay for it. It's a scandal, and no one seems to want to have anything to do with it. If we want to stop the war a national referendum on a progressive war tax is the one sure method.

[joho65]

We should be paying for this war with a surtax added to our tax bill each April. Then Americans, even those not paying attention, would learn cost of the war. At least in terms of dollars if not in terms of human suffering. Just like a draft a surtax would help focus the public's attention.

[RDixon]

Yeah, a new commission is just what we need.

That will get something done about the waste.

I swear I now do not know which I consider worse:

The tax and spend Democrats or the borrow and spend Republicans.

If the new so-called health care for kids bill becomes law, I will be hit with a new tax of $42.00 per week to help pay for health insurance for kids of families that make more than twice per year what I do while they will be required to pay nothing if they do not smoke.

Now, mind you, this is for health INSURANCE, not health care so they are going to take money from me and GIVE it to big insurance companies.

I have decided that neither the Democrats nor the Republicans currently in office will be getting my vote in the next election.

[nippersdad]

Poor thing:

You vote for George and his enablers a few times and now you just don't know who to trust. Just keep listening to Republican talking points, maybe they will make you feel all better again. They haven't let you down yet, have they?

[hopeless277]

Sorry to break it to you, Dina, but military contracting is covered under national security and cannot be shared with the congress. It is also covered by executive priviledge. No facts or figures will be provided to congress as long as there is Republican rule(aka a Republican president). I applaud your efforts but this 'war' is for profit and power and no one gets between a Republican and a dollar bill and survives. But, hey, keep on dreaming. The world need more dreamers like you.

[dinarasor]

You are wrong...it can and is shared to Congress, but often they don't have the guts to do something about it...It won't be covered by executive privilege because the Congress appropriates the money. I have been doing this with Congress for years and getting the info is not the main problem. Having the political will to stand up to the DOD and the military is often the biggest problem. This commission won't work unless the Congress appoints some real tough characters...

[scooperss]

$189 billion for next year?
Hah
I bet after three months they'll be asking for more.

[mrcontinental]

Count on it.

[dinarasor]

I will give them about six months...the contractor bills are piling up...but hopefully, the media and some of the congressional committees will keep at it and demand some oversight on the billings...