we are spending an average of $8 billion per month in Iraq

[LSK]

How would you spend that money?

$3 billion for universal healthcare

$2 billion for paying down our debt

$1 billion for education

$1 billion for medicare/social security

$1 billion for public financing of elections

[CrazyOrangeCat]

1. I have a tough time arguing with that . . .

LSK for Prez!

Throw in a billion a month for alternative energy research, and another to help protect wild lands.

Beats the hell out of blowing up children and old people . . .

[lapfog_1]

2. $2 B a month for the debt

assuming that we only pay principal with that (and pay the interest with other funds)...
that's only 330+ years till the debt is fully paid off!

Yeah!

I know, it's better than spending on the war... BUT, well, we are in such a deep hole. And littleboots is handing out shovels.

[LSK]

3. it gets worse, how much of that $8billion is borrowed

:scared:

[lapfog_1]

9. That's difficult to know...

basically you have to figure out what the true federal spending level is, including all spending on Iraq, then account for the federal governments ability to print more money (inflation), then subtract all revenue and you have the true deficit. That deficit, as a proportion of the total spending is the fraction you can say we are "borrowing" to pay for this war.

Or you can simply say the war is the most useless thing our government is doing and ascribe the total cost of the war to our ability to borrow... so I guess it's 100 percent!

[Deja Q]

4. How much of it isn't going to Halliburton?

Why no-bid contracts? What happened to "competition is a good thing" when nobody seems to be competing against Halliburton?

[LSK]

6. I could have named this thread:

"we are spending an average of $8 billion per month on Halliburtan"

And it would have been pretty accurate.

[Jcrowley]

5. K&R

Always need reminders.

US Military is the greatest threat to us all. Stealing our national treasury.

[Jim Warren]

7. That is just in Iraq, right

Doesn't cover many things stateside like long term care for wounded and disabled.

If the war ended today, Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz figures the Iraq war cost to be $2.3 TRILLION.

He figures that could guarantee solvency of Social Security for 75 years.

[LSK]

8. I believe that is correct

Of course with their funny accounting tricks, its probably twice that number.