The $3 Trillion Shopping Spree

THAT WAS FUN. Just got done spending $3 trillion. Try it yourself - it's a lot harder than you might think. Honestly, it would have been a whole lot easier just to follow the president's example and blow it all on one illegal occupation of Iraq.

$3 trillion is the projected cost of the Iraq War according to Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard lecturer Linda Bilmes. That's a whole lot of zeros, but what does it really amount to? How many homes would it buy for Americans who've fallen victim to the subprime meltdown? How many debts would it pay off for developing nations? For that matter, how many of those new Mac Air laptops would it buy me? As it turns out, one whole hell of a lot of all of those things combined.

Try it yourself: http://3trillion.org

What a colossal waste of money. What a tragedy of lost opportunities. Where is all this money going? KBR, Halliburton and the other war profiteers have made out like bandits in Iraq, while taxpayers and their own workers get screwed. KBR enjoys contracts worth $16 billion, and still avoids paying Medicare and Social Security taxes by hiring workers through shell companies in the Cayman Islands.

In the Bush Administration's defense, of course, they had no idea it would cost this much when they embarked on their insane crusade (in fact, they still don't) Along with cheering Iraqis, arsenals of WMDs, and leprechauns and unicorns, the White House expected to be presenting the American people with a much, much smaller bill for its services. Back in 2003, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld (remember him?) was fond of quoting the projected cost at $50 billion.

You may recall that about six years ago, Bush's own chief economic adviser, Lawrence Lindsey, was pushed out of the White House for suggesting that the war could cost up to a trifling $200 billion - still $2.8 trillion off the mark. "Baloney" was how Rumsfeld characterized Lindsey's estimate, before quoting the $50 billion figure.

With Rumsfeld gone, one would hope to see a little more honest accounting out of the Defense Department. So what does The Pentagon have to say about Stiglitz's sobering calculation? That number "seems way out of the ballpark to me," said Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell.

Could $3 trillion cover the cost of a worthwhile accountant at the DoD? Apparently that's the only thing it can't afford.

Comments

[jayne]

Yes, a $3 trillion dollar shopping spree, as well as nightmare, as is the Jenna Bush let them eat Oscar De La Renta wedding today.

But, more importantly, what does it say when we hear more from General Petraeus than from Secretary of Defense Robert Gates? In fact, who can name one defense secretary after Donald Rumsfeld---and why not?

And, who needs a State Department, after all, when we have a military.

What do you make of those who now crusade for American intervention and "occupation" of Myanmar? Humanitarian crisis aside, is one occupation better than another occupation, or are they all created equally, and whatever happened to a United Nations collaborative effort? The cowboy-in-chief appears to have succeeded quite well at nuking diplomacy in the name of saving the free world.

[angelica9]

Dear John Cusack

Polititians don't seem to spend money on the right things, whatever country they are in.
The politiams in my country don't spend it on wars (that i know of) but on illegal holidays and huge bonuses, while the rate payers have electricity cuts and rates put up exorbitantly.

I have been following the US elections, and i hope the person who becomes president will keep to their word about all the promises made in their campain. Amnesia seems to be what a lot of polititians suffer from.

This probably isn't the right place, but I've always wanted to ask you... Were you at Nelson Mandela's 80th birthday party?
My friends were saying "Look there's Mandela" and i was shouting, "Look, there's John Cusack!"
If that was you, what is your connection with South Africa?

Thanks for being part of my life (in the other dimension way that actors are) since City Hall.
M

[MichelleMauceri]

The points you made are well said and true. I…believe that that money could be better spent at home. I don’t even want a new laptop, car, PDA, etc, just a roof over my head and that money being put into our economy could certainly help improve jobs and help other Americans keep their houses. Now I do not know much about politics and am only now following more closely to learn what I can from people who do, but what I do know is that I don’t trust politicians. All say one thing and do another.

I didn't vote for Bush and not because I had any idea this might happen, I just didn't. On the flip side however, I did understand Bush's way other thinking. I live in NY and could have been in either of the Twin Towers that day. I wasn’t fortunately, but my neighborhood at the time of this devastation, was littered with pictures of friends and neighbors who had lost their lives in 9/11. You weren't there to see the pain in their eyes. You could not walk down the street oblivious to this, and yes Bush has gone OVERBOARD, but honestly, I won’t say that revenge or "THIS MEANS WAR" wasn’t on MY MIND at the time.

[Sc00bs]

I am from the UK and Jon reading your blog has definatly opened my eyes about your country Ours is bad enough but it seems but it seems that greed and disregard for the people and their needs is never once thought about thought about by our governments but just what they can do next to line their full pockets even more.

[glitterglam]

Well said, John. Three trillion dollars down the drain. For what? To fight a war that is totally meaningless? BTW, watched you in "War, Inc." at the Tribeca Film Festival; loved it.
$ three trillion--is that why we have to pay higher prices for gas, oil and food? So Dubya that crook, that liar, that murderer could get off on spending our money to have innocent people killed in foreign lands? I could name different ways to spend that type of money--help the homeless, provide medical care to those who don't have insurance; etc. I don't need a new laptop and I could live with my old computer but it sickens me to think that such an astronomical amount of money has gone toward this war.

[libbyliberal]

John,

Thanks for your expression of indignation. Greed and corporatism on local, regional, national and global levels is devastating the planet and the family of man (and woman).

Did you and fellow commenters ever see the Canadian documentary, The Corporation? It makes the astute assertion that since corporations are "legal persons" the psychological profile of such personhood would be that of PSYCHOPATH. Narcissism, ruthlessness, amorality.

Arthur Miller's play, "All My Sons", demonstrates poignantly this moral sell-out on a personal tragic level with a father having ultimately and unwittingly sacrificed his son's (along with so may others) life by his corporate-loyal decision to shortchange military equipment.

Right now the FISA situation has returned to Congress, whereby telecom companies are successfully pressuring for another shot at immunity. Senator Rockefeller who backs Obama, by the way (so I would like to see Barack take a VOCAL stand on this) is eager to forge a compromise on behalf of the telecoms (and this would be used by Bush and his associates to get THEIR "not really our responsibility" free cards). The House stood firm but pressure from Senators like Rockefeller to excuse the inexcusable is going on. "Hey, they were only doing their CORPORATE (a/k/a SELF-SERVING PSYCHOPATHIC) thing. Business as amorally usual. When apologist senators referred to the telecoms as "corporate patriots" that was hard to stomach.

The time for INTENSE activism is here, to call/write House Reps and Senators to stand firm and not grant telecom immunity.

[glavpuppet]

Just managed to spend $3 trillion (and normally I am very good at spending my cash.)....... I don't have a very good grasp of the American political system, hence my interest in The Huffington Post, but is it too late for John Cusack to stand as a candidate? I only ask as the far reaching consequences of the US Presidents actions affect us all globally and I would find the presence of someone sensible in The Whitehouse very reassuring.

[glavpuppet]

The reason I don't have a good grasp of the American political system is not lack of education..... I am in fact British. I hate to think what our Iraqi bar tab is

[AbbieXHoffman]

Now you are on the right track. Let's move the dialogue forward toward the goal of putting this administration out of business of jingoism.

Another place for the money...developing a real rail system to reduce the demand of fuel by airplanes. Can you talk to your buddies in Hollywood about letting go of their private jets? It's a little bit hypocritical of them to claim to be green and riding around in those guzzlers.

[TRCimino]

How could the money have been better spent?

1. 10 out of 10 oncology researchers agree that a reliable cure for cancer could be reached with proper funding. While the price tag estimates vary, the consensus is somewhere around twenty billion.

2. With the unrest in Darfur, an influx of just fifty billion could save (or have saved) over a million lives.

3. With the first of millions of U.S. “Baby Boomers” starting to retire, the Social Security Administration is not likely to last past this massive generation. For a mere eight hundred billion dollars, we could buy out current SSA equity holders and start a national investment plan/ policy that makes sense.

4. With the rising cost of education, foreign trained medical professionals will soon out number the ranks of the domestically trained. For just 45 billion dollars, we could put every generation “Y” high school student through undergrad, medical school, and residency.

5. For just eighty billion properly placed dollars, we could have bought the island of Cuba (That is, if their population could live with our substandard healthcare system).

6. And for just one billion dollars, we could re-make the entire “Star Wars” series, complete with new sets, “A“ list performers and updated digital enhancements.

The big question is which one should we have chosen? The answer is, we could have done it all, which by the way adds up to 996 billion, leaving 2 trillion, 4 billion left for everyone else’s lists.

[aleco]

Excellent post, John. We need more people like you to speak out and tell the American people the truth. With all the talk and debate about Iraq, it comes down to this: the longer the U.S. stays in Iraq, the more money Halliburton makes. It's that simple. George Bush and Dick Cheney have or will get their "cut" of the profits. They work for Halliburtion, not the American people.

Halliburton would not have benefited If everything had gone smoothly in Iraq after the invasion and the Iraqi people had said, "Thank you very much America, goodbye." All the actions taken by the U.S. (so called mistakes and mismanagement) were calculated to make our departure from Iraq difficult if not impossible. It all makes sense now.

George Bush and Dick Cheney are criminals and it looks like they're going to get away with it because the media and the American people don't want to believe it. Instead we worry about flag pins and Rev. Wright who has no relevance whatsoever.

[amberbreeC]

Nice to have you back!

[sa]

three trillion has bought us this:

nuclear detonation on american soil.

the other foot will drop.
the "wisdom of war",
is no wisdom at all.

no one should ever elect a dumb president, and not twice.
america deserves what it got -
as ye sew, so shall ye reap.

the "hard slog" that rumsfeld spoke of
has not yet begun.
wait till you see what the future has planned...

[Amymarie]

I find your viewpoints stimulating. Please keep them coming, people need to hear the truth!

[tkondaks]

Mr. Cusack seems to think it's a bad idea that "KBR...avoids paying Medicare and Social Security taxes by hiring workers through shell companies in the Cayman Islands."
I don't understand this. In other interviews­/writings, Mr. Cusack claims that he is a Libertarian. He therefore should be cheering this policy of KBR's. Eliminating the payroll tax and allowing individuals to make their own choices vis-a-vis health care and retirement WITHOUT GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE is the cornerstone of Libertarianism.

[TRCimino]

Libertarianism is a great thread of concepts for about 10% of the population. What about the other segments of our society though that can't manage things like healthcare, retirement and other basic social responsibilities. While it would be nice to think that a citizen could do it all and do so with the free autonomy detailed by the Libertarian movement, it's just not a reality. And, in case you are wondering, this comes from a guy who could easily fit into that theoretical 10%.

[Chavez08]

I was already a huge fan of Cusack from the 80s and 90s because of his movies. Now I think I have my first man-crush (or maybe a tie between him and Denzel Washington?)

Keep it up, John!!!

[Chemwiz]

"How many homes would it buy for Americans who've fallen victim to the subprime meltdown? How many debts would it pay off for developing nations? For that matter, how many of those new Mac Air laptops would it buy me?"
Hey Cusak, people that irresponsibly got themselves into a bad mortgage shouldn't be bailed out by anyone else...people need to start taking responsibility for their actions.

What price tag do you put on freedom? We went their to save the people and they are grateful for our presence there (unless you listen to Bill Maher). We didn't liberate France in a year did we?

Hey, what happened to "Bush invaded Iraq for oil"??? Where's the oil?? Why aren't we getting all of that oil that we went in for??? hmmmm

[newworldman777]

Oh yeah...that's right..one of the alleged "reasons" that we invaded Iraq was to grant the Iraqis their freedom. Of course, this reason conveniently popped up after the "WMDs" never materialized.

Allow me to go out on a limb and "prognosticate" just a wee bit. When the Iraqis have a legimate election, with a number of parties vying for power, they will elect leaders who will vow to crush Israel -- e.g., when the Palestinians elected Hamas the first chance that arose. When the Iraqis follow suit, then the American Republicans will vow to ignore them, so as not to legitimize their power. We fight to give those people the opportunity to decide their own futures, then our conservative sect seems to be shocked when they proceed to elect anti-Israel, anti-American governments, reflective of the majority of their populations. Considering how America and Israel have treated the Islamic countries in the Middle East, why is anybody shocked?

[gopindrag]

You don't know the price of freedom until you're holding your infant son or daughter's dead body in your newly liberated, kind of democratized hands, oh wait a minute they got blown off by the American missile that liberated your child, oops, my bad! You know I get you. But the Iraqis don't and that's the problem, their democracy is worth the sacrifice of their infants, ain't it! Sometimes you gotta break a few schools and hospitals and infant skulls to make a democratic omelette.

[worldtraveller]

Chemwiz I agree with you on the bailout but hey wait.. We stepped on French soil June of 1944 and pretty much emptied France of Germans by March of 1945. My scientific calculations senor Chemwhiz say that's less than a year.
And if you think we didn't go to get a foothold on oil you are nuts. Don't mistake a lack of production for obtaining reserves. one is cash flow the other is assets on a balance sheet that can be converted to cash flow. Or think of it this way. Exxon/Mobil made a staggering 40 bil in profit last year. But crude oil went up $30 already this year raising the value of their 13.6 billion barrels of reserve by OVER 400 BILLION DOLLARS.... good year.. huh???

[racom]

You really should do more reading. Subprime, for example. Are you aware that a large number of these questionable morgages were pushed on the minorities of this country? Blacks, hispanics and low income were victimized by these crooks because the subprime was the only paper they were shown, no options allowed. For the speculators, I could not care less but many hard working Americans were trapped by these guys and they deserve help.

[VitriolAndAngst]

When you are a bank selling a mortgage -- who is the professional in the room?
The Sub Prime "problem" was preventable if salespeople weren't telling customers to lie -- especially when it is ON THEM to do a check on a loan's credit. The "crisis" is really charging extortionist fees and depending on the idea of an "always inflating" property value to cover the value of the loan -- which is totally irresponsible and the BANKS KNOW BETTER.

If i go to a heart surgeon they will lose their jobs if they give me a transplant when I need my tonsils removed. That's the sort of fraud you are endorsing, and then you are trying to blame the patient who LOST in the transaction.

But this is typical of these sorts of crises. The banks have a lot of money to pay the media to spin it their way.

[spangles72]

At the last count the UK had spent over £10billion on this futile attempt at world domination! I am, frankly, disgusted at the British government who immediately jump on the Bush bandwagon, they continue to pursue this horrific rape of a country, unable to defend itself adequately against such 'brute force'.
I believe, this is the first war the US has no way to get the money back. For example, in the Second World War the UK paid for US support in full, by handing over its gold reserves and its Carribbean navel bases to the USA. The UK paid all the remainder of its war debt over the next 61 years concluding in 2006
I bet Bush wished we had gone in first this time, at least then, he couls have billed Blair/Brown et al!!!