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

[MourningDude]

If you thought spending 3 trillion was hard, try spending 87 trillion. That's how much we're in the hole TODAY for future unfunded Social Security and Medicare payments.

And there are people saying we could have saved the world with a trillion from Iraq. LOL, we couldn't even put a dent in the hole we're already in.

Of course, most Dems don't let that bother them, and they're full steam ahead on taking the 74 trillion we're in the hole for Medicare and expanding it to everyone in the country...

-boggle-

[NoMoFearNoMoHate]

That's in large part due to don't-tax-­but-spend-­like-you-f­ound-a-bla­nk-checkbo­ok republican administrations that have pillaged the SS and Medicare funds.

Wanna see the problem in this country? If you're a republican­... look in the mirror.

[not one of the sheep]

Wahh, wahh, wahh. So tired of the crybaby mindless blaming all the woes on one party or another. The repubs sucked when they were in charge and now the dems suck now that they are in charge. There is no difference with the clowns in charge or the ones that were in charge. Spend, spend, spend and give the wonderful lip service that we have all come to expect and love. Wake up and realize that ALL the politicians only care about themselves, their egos and their pocketbooks.

[MourningDude]

Nope, that unfunded liability already assumed we're paying back every dime borrowed.

It's a structural flaw in the programs.

[ddharder]

Well, considering SS is nothing more than a Ponzi scheme...

[racom]

When you use information from a 'right wing' think tank group you should include that in your comment. From the ncpa web site I found your bogus numbers,
'After payroll taxes and premium payments by the elderly, the unfunded liability of Medicare and Social Security combined totals more than $73 trillion — about seven times the size of our economy'. Maybe, IF you "calculate the unfunded obligations over an infinite horizon".
This is from the SS trustees: " The latest reports of the Trustees of Social Security and Medicare calculate the present values of the cash flow deficits for both programs — and the numbers are staggering. Social Security’s funding gap for the next 75 years stands at $5.2 trillion. Medicare’s unfunded costs come to $28 trillion, including $8.1 trillion added by the new prescription drug benefit. The combined $33.2 trillion shortfall is about three times the current size of our economy." I think we all can agree that $33.2 trillion looks just slightly less than $73 trillion. Also, that $8.1 trillion for drug cost could be cut way down with a plan that allowed medicare to bargain drug prices.
The greater amount of the unfunded debt comes from medicare, which would be far less if we actually adopted a single payer health plan. Fully 30% of every health care $ goes to insurance companies. We need to dump the ins companies, use a medicare like system which has a 3% administration cost.

[MourningDude]

Ummm... Medicare IS a single payer health insurance plan.

-boggle-

If you use the 75 year horizon, that's fine. BUT, if you use the 75 year horizon, then EVERY YEAR we move forward, that unfunded liability grows by $600 billion. That's because we lose a year of ~$200 surplus and tack on a year of ~$400 billion deficit.

Do you have an extra $600 billion laying around this year to keep us afloat? No? How about next year?

Also, remember that's the amount we would have to plop down on the table TODAY to cover those costs. If you pay it as you go along, it gets much more expensive than even those figures.

The Iraq war looks like a pittance in comparison. We could almost launch and fund an Iraq war every year until the end of time for the amount we owe on Medicare alone.

[LiberalDemIda]

What pisses me off the most, John, is that our government - with LOTS of help of so-called DLC Democrats - kept telling the American people that there wasn't any money for universal health-care; that the bill would be too big to give more money to schools for worthwhile projects like music and art that have all but been scrapped off the rosters.

We knew it wasn't true. But we didn't have any proof. Right-wing zealots kowtowing to right-wing propaganda delivered with more fire than anything Goebbels himself could've ever concocted, attacked anyone who dare speak of the evil universal / single-payer health-care and education funding. In effect, Americans began to believe they weren't worthy.

Excellent psy-ops there.

Now that lame excuse will no longer fly. The InternetS is open to us; information is readily available for anyone willing to click and google and a war that's bleeding our future grandchildren to death while China has the gall to tell our President to "just shut up" with impunity - it all has come to a head in an explosion strong enough to even open Republicans' glued-shut eyes.

No more excuses. If there's money for expensive wars, then there's money for universal / single payer health care and well-funded American education.

For that we can thank Al Gore for getting the funding to open the InternetS to us all. It's going to be hard for Americans now to remain ignorant.

I hope.

[christia]

None of the scandals, misappropriations or favoritism should be a surprise to anyone - Naomi Klein may have coined the phrase "Disaster Capitalism", but fraud for gain has been going on for, oh.... I'd say a long time.
When W declared "Mission Accomplished" I just knew he wasn't talking about the war!

[indypete]

He needs to re-create that photo op standing in front of a gas pump with a $4/ gallon sign. That's mission accomplished!

[FrankenPC]

I've got a radical notion about this war.

First off, this nation doesn't have 3 trillion to spend. All of that money is coming from outside investors (AKA China). So, here is how I think it went down... BushCo pushed the idea of cheap oil in high quantities once Iraq was converted to democracy. When that fantastical plan failed, BUshCo borrowed more and more money to try and fend of the existing creditors with more inane plans to "win". In other words, Bush CAN'T leave Iraq. EVER. Once he does (and subsequently admits defeat) allll of those creditors will come, in mass, to the US to collect that bad debt.

So, #1: We would never have that opportunity to use 3 trillion for all of the altruistic ideas presented in this post. #2: When the war is finally lost, we will OWE 3 trillion with NO COLLATERAL!

NAHHH!!!! I must be INSANE to think this!

[politicky]

I saw Stiglitz & Bilmes on Democracy Now at the end of February
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/2/29/exclusive_the_three_trillion_dollar_war

More fun reading--
Portrait of an Oil-Addicted Former Superpower
How Rising Oil Prices Are Obliterating America's Superpower Status
By Michael T. Klare
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174929/michael_klare_america_out_of_gas

and music to go with it---
John Mayer Slow Dancing in a Burning Room
http://youtube.com/watch?v=MnKdz60H8VI

Ok, there's the history and possible prognosis. Now what? How do we dig ourselves out of this unsustainable infrastructure nightmare? How do we revamp the system so that it can be extricated from the military-i­ndustrial-­(congressi­onal)-comp­lex?

[Mike789]

Better do something soon. Very soon. Goldman-Sachs today projected the average barrel of oil price for 2009. It comes in at an average of $200. At $150 a barrel gas is $4.50 per gallon. At 200 it's close to $7. The experts are trying to factor into that prognosis the decrease in demand. Heard this on NPR this a.m.

[Fireflies68]

3trillion.org definitely puts 3 trillion dollars into perspective. Even if the projected cost does reach the 3 trillion dollar mark or even goes beyond it, the loss of lives is far greater. There are endless ways to spend that kind of money that would better serve our country or mankind as a whole. However, I agree with an earlier comment that it would be irresponsible of us, not to mention immoral, to completely pull out of Iraq without first helping to rebuild it. We have to clean up the mess that we created. In doing so there should be an open bidding war (lowest bid wins) among ALL interested respectable contractors while excluding all those who have any ties to government entities. You can't enter a sweepstakes if someone in your family is employed by the sponsoring company and so it should be the same when it comes to awarding government contracts.

Thanks for the perspective.

[Guitarsandmore]

Dear Mr. John Cusack,

You might also recall that Rumsfeld said the war would take anywhere from six weeks to no more than 6 months at tops. When you consider this smaller projected time line the 50 billion dollar estimate seems almost possible (but not quite).

Best Regards,

G&M


P.S. the insurgency is in its last throes

[georgiaR]

Over 6 years and not another attack in our country. Yes it is worth it!
The President has one main job - to protect us - and he has done that.
We were attacked on 9-11 because Clinton did nothing after attacks when he was President.

[theMightyT]

except research, compile, and present exhaustive info and intel. VETTED intel, not the Bush kind - you know, pretend.

"Bin Ladin Determined To Strike In America"

[blindjester]

How often did they attack us before 9/11? More than every few years or so?

Any apparent "respite" has nothing to do with Iraq, anyway. The people who did 9/11 (if we believe the president) are in Pakistan, with money from Saudi Arabia.

[indypete]

Thank you, Mr Hannity.

[mrkdds]

Wow! Are you serious? I thought his kind of Pavlovian "9/11, 9/11" response was slowing down now ......gues­s not

[Driver125]

A good idea (scam) never dies. Particularly when you only have room for one in your head.

[RobertAndropolis]

Fallacious post hoc ergo prompter hoc argument. Premise: "If Bush is in power..." Conclusion: "then we will not be attacked" ties together two unrelated events. You are attributing a worth and a value to your president that is undeserving because he is--an will always be--an unrepentant imbecile who has allowed himself (particularly his ego) to be manipulated by a perfect storm of callous, greedy men (and Dr. Rice) whose irresponsible lack of exit strategy forethought before the invasion has resulted in our dollar plunging in freefall against all world currencies, our recession that your president still doesn't know we are in the middle of. And of course the 4,000+ dead and 15,000+ wounded and tens of thousands (projected) to have PTSD and other psychological issues upon returning Stateside to woefully unacceptable treatment facilities. But otherwise hell yeah Bush is a great guy. Great guy. Kinda guy you'd wanna have a beer with.

[flatus]

The three trillion would be best spent on pitchforks and torches.

[stellanoir]

The alleged fact that this illegal war has cost each and every one of us 20 grand is staggering.

For what ends? The enrichment of Halliburton and Blackwell. . . ?

Even if it's lest than that it's far too much in blood and treasure.

One of my dear friends only son's died.

After being horrifically abused by the military.

This is all bogus.

[indypete]

I think the figure was supposed to be more like 35G each. On top of the 200 grand I owe on my morgage and the buttload of money I had to cough up for my wife's stroke, I can't afford to be paying for a war. And to think I'd been promising to get myself a Harley for my golden years.

[CubFanCarrie]

In addition to all of the humanitarian "purchases" -- curing Alzheimer's, universal health care for all, clean drinking water, etc. -- I'd just have to buy out Sam Zell so that the Chicago Cubs and Wrigley Field stay together, and so Wrigley Field keeps its name!!
But seriously, the cost of this senseless war is appalling. Thank you for alerting us to this website so that we can spread the word. I live in Utah now, where it's hard being a liberal, and where many who live here would turn their noses up at any criticism of Bush. I often wonder how they can justify their dogmatic support of this dismal, destructive administration.

[ckomeshian]

Let's all understand that greed is inherent within each of us. While the government is getting away with gross overspending with no real accountability, I've witnessed greed in individuals and corporations on smaller levels that follow the same patterns. We all have. I live in a small ski town in Colorado and on a daily basis witness corruption that is interfering with nature and people's ability to earn a decent livable wage.

I think John Cusack can afford to buy more Macbook Air computers than most. That he chooses to live a seemingly more humble and not so flashy lifestyle is admirable.

I am posting a comment because I recently rented The Jack Bull which I categorize with Princess Mononoke and Carried Away as films that deal with the gray areas and depict human nature more honestly than oversimplified right vs. wrong formulas. By understanding we are all capable of greed (or evil to some extent) and by changing some of our own habits we can make a difference and it will have a positive ripple effect on the world. It's really easy.

[indypete]

I know what you mean... I'n a rabid anti-war lib but my IRA is all oil and weapons. I tell myself it's not greed, it's "ya gotta go along to git along".

[ckomeshian]

Thank you for your honesty about your IRA. People have the power but we choose not to use it. Until we are all personally sent an invoice for $20,000 payable by law to the U.S. government, nobody is really going to take national debt and overspending seriously. It's like the garbage problem. Well, let's all wait until the situation is dire and then deal with it when it's too late and our water and land are completely toxic. Aren't we smarter than that? Let's see more energy and action and less hypocrisy. Dr. Seuss even spelled it out for us with The Lorax. Talk about easy and yet...

[Mercedes]

Well, Bush is getting a bit of happy news.

I've just read at Yahoo.com that the Iraqi OIL Minister is setting up deals with the top 10 OIL companies to come in and fix up and work on the existing OIL fields and that these deals will be signed this June.

This will mean that Exxon-Mobil, Shell, BP, Chevron, etc will be getting their feet into Iraq's OIL industry.

BUT this does not include (at least not yet) the 80% of Iraqi OIL reserves that haven't been tapped yet. This is what is included in the Hydrocarbon Law which (thankfully) still hasn't been approved.

But IF the Iraqi government approves the Hydrocarbon Law then Bush will be moving our beloved US troops into the COMPLETED military bases that are located next to these untapped OIL fields, to protect them from sabotage.

IF this is allowed to happen, then these OIL companies have the potential to make (steal) $30 TRILLION, yes $30 TRILLION off the untapped fields.

THIS is the reason Bush invaded Iraq--to get his hands on that damn OIL, no matter who dies...

[racom]

The puppet government in Baghdad does not have the support of 70% of the people, enter al-Sadr who is opposing the privatization of the country. Iran is also actively, not to suggest militarily, opposing any western take over of Iraq and its oil wealth. The middle east, being energy rich, is moving toward the situation of dictating the terms of their oil sales, prices, buyers and conditions. Iran has already taken the steps of not dealing in dollars, others have been considering this for some time. If OPEC changes from dollars to euros as the preferred exchange we are in serious trouble, we have so few friends that will oppose the move. Our weakened dollar will take a hard fall.

[racom]

"Wasting money is What They do"! I just read in the book, 'The Shock Doctrine' that after Katrine had basically killed NO the administration was handing out 'no bid' contracts to all their favorite friendly contractors, hundreds of millions of $. One cited example, $175 per square of blue plastic roof covering, (temporary hole patch) and after many sub, sub, sub contractors later the workers who actually put the cover on the roof got $2 per square. This bunch of crooks just have no limit as to how far they will go in bleeding the national treasury. Where are the watch dogs, where are the investigations, where is the accountability? Freakin worthless democrats, the do-nothing pol party!!!

[BrighterStar]

More often than not, when a person says something critical of the Bush administration those on the left will believe it with out critical thought. This is one of those circumstances. If you read Joseph Stiglitz carefully you will see that he only gets to the three trillion number by playing fast and loose with his numbers. First he runs the costs through the year 2017. Secondly, he also includes costs that he estimates will have to be paid for collateral matters. Finally, and most astonishingly, he includes what he concludes to be costs to the future economy from the warn (and likely discounts any economic advantages from the war). Those numbers are so easy to manipulate it is no wonder he was able to get to such a rediculous number.

Even if we were to accept his uncredible three trillion number, lets put that into some perspective. Over the same time perios total American government spending should exceed 100 trillion. So even with Stiglitz’s outragous numbers the Iraq War only accounts for three percent of the federal budget.

[Johnagain]

So you think the money that we have spent was worth it? What if the true figure ends up being $1trillion (ignoring all the interest that we will owe on the borrowed money that is paying for this war, the cost of taking care of 30,000+ long term injured soldiers, etc). Does that make this war worthwhile? Stiglitz may be wrong on the specifics of the numbers. So how does that change the overall assessment of this war?

[BrighterStar]

Whether it was worth it is a question that can only be answered in the future. If Iraq is a successful western oriented nation it will be well worth it for both this country and Iraq. If we fail and Iraq dissolves into tyranny and terrorism it will not have been worth it. We will likely argue about the shades in between for years to come.