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War in Iraq is Indeed a State Issue |
Current rating: 0 |
by John Nichols
(No verified email address) |
30 Aug 2006
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According to the National Priorities Project, the cost of the Iraq war will reach $318 billion by the end of this summer. That breaks down to $2,844 for every American household or $1,075 for every American. |
During a Wisconsin Public Radio discussion last week about the impact of the war in Iraq on this year's elections, I was asked by a caller about the governor's race. The caller was almost apologetic, wondering if perhaps the inquiry was appropriate for a discussion of foreign policy.
In fact, it was entirely appropriate, and I was pleased to address the line of "reasoning" that says candidates for state constitutional offices ought not discuss the costly mess in Iraq because debates about military affairs are reserved solely for federal campaigns.
Let's be clear: The war is a state issue.
The occupation of Iraq, which has taken the lives of dozens of Wisconsinites, which has severely injured hundreds of this state's sons and daughters and which has dispatched Wisconsin National Guard units to the Middle East for excessive stretches of time, is costing Wisconsin a fortune.
While the worst costs of the war are human, the economic impact should never be neglected.
According to the National Priorities Project, the cost of the Iraq war will reach $318 billion by the end of this summer. That breaks down to $2,844 for every American household or $1,075 for every American.
The total cost to Wisconsinites for maintaining George Bush's war will surpass $5 billion next month.
In fact, by the end of September when the gubernatorial campaign will hit its stride Wisconsinites will have paid $5,079,600,000 toward a Bush administration project that is rapidly degenerating into civil war and that has no end in sight.
What could Wisconsin spend more than $5 billion on?
Health care, education, housing, aid to cities and farms, cutting property taxes the list is endless.
Unfortunately, aside from Green Party gubernatorial candidate Nelson Eisman, the contenders for the state's top job are not talking much about the war, or its incredible cost to Wisconsin. Republican Mark Green is a cheerleader for any and every foreign policy blunder the Bush White House makes he even voted to allow the establishment of permanent bases in Iraq. And Gov. Jim Doyle, the Democrat who in the Vietnam era was an anti-war firebrand, has been troublingly vague about this conflict.
It's a far cry from the early 1930s, when a young Republican governor made the case for dramatically increasing state aid to those left unemployed by the Great Depression with impassioned speeches that recalled how the country had barely a decade earlier found billions of dollars to spend on World War I. Phil La Follette told legislators that, if the resources could be found to drag the United States into that senseless European struggle and to enrich the munitions merchants who emptied the federal treasury in the name of "patriotism" then surely it should be possible to pull together the money needed to create a jobs program for Wisconsin.
The genius of Phil La Follette, as Jonathan Kasparek notes in his fine new biography of the man, was that the progressive Republican governor had what Kasparek refers to as a "profound grasp of the meaning of America."
La Follette recognized that the struggle to right the course of Wisconsin could not be unlinked from the struggle to right the course of America.
Surely, that remains as much the case today as it was in the 1930s. And those who seek the governorship this year particularly the incumbent would do well to acknowledge this fact.
Copyright ©2006, Capital Newspapers
http://www.madison.com/ |
Copyright by the author. All rights reserved. |
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GOP Congressmen Waste Billions of Local Taxpayer Dollars on Iraq Fiasco |
by MoveOn.org
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
30 Aug 2006
|
25 Press Events Nationwide on Wednesday, August 30th, 12:00 Noon
WASHINGTON - August 29 - A new report on the “Cost of Iraq” will be released on Wednesday, August 30, in twenty-five cities by members of MoveOn.org Political Action. The report will analyze the cost of the Iraq War by Congressional district.
Since the Iraq war began, the Republican-led Congress has spent more than $300 Billion on President Bush’s failed policy. $18 billion has been awarded to Halliburton, much of which was in “no bid” contracts and $9 billion is missing.
“Most Americans agree President Bush’s Iraq policy is a fiasco. But Congress keeps rubber-stamping Bush’s wasteful spending,” said Tom Matzzie, Washington Director of MoveOn Political Action. “By voting to spend $300 billion on the fiasco in Iraq, Republicans in Congress have short-changed education, health care, job creation, and tough homeland security,” he added.
The estimate is based on two reports: the “Cost of War” by the National Priorities Project http://costofwar.com/numbers.html, which looks at Congressional appropriations and Congressional Research Service (CRS) studies.
At the events, local MoveOn members holding giant red hands and signs accusing their representative of being “caught red-handed” will talk about money from their district that has been wasted.
“George Bush's war has cost the resident of Saratoga Springs, New York more than $962 million,” said Roger Wyatt, a local MoveOn member. “It is outrageous that Representative Sweeney has continued to support wasting our hard-earned dollars on Bush's fiasco in Iraq instead of spending that money here at home where we really need it.” Wyatt concluded.
The national report will be available on Wednesday at www.political.moveon.org/costofiraq.
For details of an event near you, please contact alex (at) fenton.com |
