Public Employee Press

BushWatch
PEP keeps an eye on the most anti-labor, anti-minority,
anti-woman president in American history

Iraq: American households bear the costs

If every household in the United States received a bill for the cost of the war in Iraq, it would be over $2,000. With no coherent strategy to end the mounting death toll, President Bush keeps pouring money into Iraq. This year the total topped $151 billion and will soon hit $200 billion. And that does not include the price of his planned permanent military bases in Iraq.

Just as in Vietnam, the war is proving that we cannot have both “guns and butter” without tax increases. Bush’s strategy of stubbornly “staying the course” means that domestic programs, like his underfunded “No Child Left Behind” education initiative, will continue to flounder.

That $200 billion would sure come in handy for the 27 million Americans who have no basic health insurance. Those funds could also fight AIDS with a global treatment and prevention program. They could provide disease immunizations every child in the developing world. At schools throughout the nation, they could create 27 million new slots for the Head Start early education program and fund college scholarships for 40 million cash-strapped students.

Instead of housing for soldiers and embassy staff in Iraq, those funds could have purchased housing vouchers for 23 million families. While American taxpayers foot the bill, private contractors like Halliburton have pocketed $221 million in overcharges on military meals and fuel deliveries plus another $6 million in kickbacks.

Sadly, the death toll in Iraq continues to rise as well. As of June 13, the loss of American lives reached 1,700 with another 11, 344 wounded in combat. When will America say, “Enough killing, enough lies?”

— Alfredo Alvarado

Source: Institute for Policy Studies, www.ips-dc.org.