The One Certainty About Iraq: Spiraling Costs for Americans

Folks, I read this today and wept. Many of us are already barely making it as it is, and now we have to pay for the death and destruction being rained upon the poor souls of Iraq. We have to pay for Halliburton's profiteering. We are slaves. We cannot even house, feed, and educate our children properly.

WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU THINKING, AMERIKAN GOVERNMENT???

Anyone reading this blog is a slave to the amerikan government. I am a slave. Your children are slaves. The only elites are the legislators with their lies..... oh, fuck me very much, I think they call it 'spin' instead of lying. They don't fucking care about anything but money and they nickel and dime us to death with their taxes. We can't eat taxes; hasn't anyone figured that out yet??? We've got to do something, and we've got to do it now.

Princesses and Princes Dumbfuck, the revolution will not be televised...... Here's what your kids are learning, besides how to drink Diet Coke and smoke Marlboros!

The Adventures of Dollar Bill

Hi, I’m Dollar Bill and I’m here to tell you about saving your money. Some people save their money at home. Some people save their money at the bank. Saving money is important. You shouldn’t always spend all the money that you get. Let’s go to KidsBank.com™. I’ll tell you how to save money!

Well, I guess we should get on to the main attraction:

By KEITH GARVIN

(The Old AngryWoofDog copied this shit shamelessly from abc.com in the interest of public education and your right to know just how seriously fucked up amerika really is. Thanks king gorge the secund.....)

April 20, 2006 — There are many uncertainties about the progress made by coalition forces and the future prospects for stability and democracy in Iraq, but there is at least one indisputable fact: The Bush administration vastly underestimated the costs of the Iraq war.

Not only in human lives, but in monetary terms as well, the costs of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq far exceed the administration's initial projection of a $50 billion tab. While the number of American casualties in Iraq has declined this year, the amount of money spent to fight the war and rebuild the country has spiralled upward.

The price is expected to almost double after lawmakers return to Capitol Hill next week when the Senate takes up a record $106.5 billion emergency spending bill that includes $72.4 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The House passed a $92 billion version of the bill last month that included $68 billion in war funding. That comes on top of $50 billion already allocated for the war this fiscal year.

Poor Planning Could Push War Costs to $1 Trillion

ABC analyst Tony Cordesman, who also holds the Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, says the exorbitant costs come down to poor planning.

"When the administration submitted its original budget for the Iraq war, it didn't provide money for continuing the war this year or any other. We could end up spending up to $1 trillion in supplemental budgets for this war."

According to the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, the United States spent $48 billion for Iraq in 2003, $59 billion in 2004, and $81 billion in 2005. The center predicts the figure will balloon to $94 billion for 2006. That equates to a $1,205 bill for each of America's 78 million families, on top of taxes they already pay.

Bill Will Linger Long After Withdrawal

Analysts say the increases can be blamed on the rising cost of maintaining military equipment and developing new equipment. As the cost of military equipment escalates, the cost of the war escalates. In fact, developing state-of-the-art weapons to defeat insurgents and their roadside bombs will hit the wallets of American taxpayers for years to come.

"The Department of Defense has increased its investment in new equipment from $700 billion to $1.4 trillion in the coming years," Cordesman said.

Army Chief of Staff Peter Schoomaker recently warned lawmakers that the cost of upkeep and replacement of military equipment would continue even after U.S. forces withdrew from Iraq. To fully reequip and upgrade the U.S. Army after the war ends will cost $36 billion over six years, and that figure assumes U.S. forces will start withdrawing from Iraq in July, and be completely out of the country by the end of 2008.