Do we have a spare $1.6 trillion?

[Lanya]

 WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The total economic impact of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is estimated at $1.6 trillion by 2009, a congressional committee said in a report released Tuesday.


That is nearly double the $804 billion in direct war costs the White House requested so far from Congress, the Democratic-led Joint Economic Committee said.

The committee estimated $1.3 trillion in war costs by the end of 2008 for Iraq, and the remainder for Afghanistan.

The total war costs could grow to $3.5 trillion by 2017, the committee estimated.

The higher total economic impact comes from, among other things, the cost of borrowing money to pay for the war, lost productivity, higher oil prices and the cost of health care for veterans, the committee said.

The committee calculated the average cost of both wars for a family of four would be $20,900 from 2002 to 2008. The cost for a family of four would go up to $46,400 from 2002 to 2017, the committee said.

The estimate was released as Democrats launch a new effort to force a withdrawal from the widely unpopular conflict. Senate Republicans dismissed the report as a political document, arguing that Democrats have "hyped" the war's impact on oil prices.

"For every dollar we spend directly in Iraq, we're going to pay another dollar for the indirect, but immediate, costs of the war," Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York, said. "We of the baby boom generation and our children and grandchildren will be paying for this war for a very long time to come."
[...........]
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/11/13/hidden.war.costs/index.html

[Amianthus]

I believe that the non-partisan CBO disagrees with those numbers.

[Christians4LessGvt]

Re: Do we have a spare $1.6 trillion?

yeah it's probably best to just surrender.

President Lincoln Sir, we just can't afford to fight this war!

[Lanya]

By all means, put it on the credit card like Bush has been doing for the last 6 years.

That'll work.

Shame about all that interest our great-great-great-grandchildren will have to pay.

[Amianthus]

Shame about all that interest our great-great-great-grandchildren will have to pay.

Doesn't seem to be a big deal when it comes to Social Security...

[Xavier_Onassis]

Shame about all that interest our great-great-great-grandchildren will have to pay.


Doesn't seem to be a big deal when it comes to Social Security.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Social Security is a promise to everyone who has paid into it.

The Iraq War was unnecessary and stupidly executed. The government of the US had no obligation to depose Saddam. Saddam had no WMD's and even if he had them, had no way of delivering them to the US. No American (other than weapons makers and mercenaries and those who profit from them) has benefitted from this stupid war.

Juniorbush ripped the lid off the 'lockbox' and began pissing away money from it on tax cuts for zillionaires first and then on his ghastly war from the day he took office.

It is a very big deal to screw around with Social Security. I have paid into it for nearly 50 years.
At no point did I ask anyone to monger a dumbass war with my money, not in Vietnam, and not in Iraq.

[Amianthus]

Social Security is a promise to everyone who has paid into it.

When I first started paying into it, they promised me that I could retire at 65 and collect full benefits. That has since changed. If they can change that, what makes you think they won't change other things about the program?

Juniorbush ripped the lid off the 'lockbox' and began pissing away money from it

The lid was not on very securely - every president for decades has done the same thing.

[Xavier_Onassis]

When I first started paying into it, they promised me that I could retire at 65 and collect full benefits. That has since changed. If they can change that, what makes you think they won't change other things about the program?

===================================================
You can still collect benefits at 62. At most, you would have to wait until you are 67.
======================================================
The lid was not on very securely - every president for decades has done the same thing.

Regardless of who pisses away money from the "lockbox", it should be illegal, and an impeachable offense. Juniorbush has been worse about going over the budget than any president in history.

[Amianthus]

Juniorbush has been worse about going over the budget than any president in history.

Source?

[Plane]

Shame about all that interest our great-great-great-grandchildren will have to pay.


Doesn't seem to be a big deal when it comes to Social Security.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Social Security is a promise to everyone who has paid into it.

The Iraq War was unnecessary and stupidly executed. The government of the US had no obligation to depose Saddam. Saddam had no WMD's and even if he had them, had no way of delivering them to the US. No American (other than weapons makers and mercenaries and those who profit from them) has benefitted from this stupid war.

Juniorbush ripped the lid off the 'lockbox' and began pissing away money from it on tax cuts for zillionaires first and then on his ghastly war from the day he took office.

It is a very big deal to screw around with Social Security. I have paid into it for nearly 50 years.
At no point did I ask anyone to monger a dumbass war with my money, not in Vietnam, and not in Iraq.

It is interesting to subtract Social Security payments from President Clintons budgets.

 Result?
No surplusses.

Under what administration was there ever a lockbox?

[Christians4LessGvt]

re: "By all means, put it on the credit card like Bush has been doing for the last 6 years"

Yes a credit card debt is preferable to this:

[Lanya]

CU4,
It's not an either/or proposition, you know.   In past wars, presidents have exacted war taxes, which paid for the wars, or helped anyway, and we all sacrificed.

Now we're supposed to go shopping and give up our rights  while he does the drunken teenager with a credit card bit.

Call me old-fashioned. I like the way previous presidents have handled it better.

[Plane]

CU4,
It's not an either/or proposition, you know.   In past wars, presidents have exacted war taxes, which paid for the wars, or helped anyway, and we all sacrificed.

Now we're supposed to go shopping and give up our rights  while he does the drunken teenager with a credit card bit.

Call me old-fashioned. I like the way previous presidents have handled it better.

What if an increase in taxes were injuriourous to the economy and the result ofthe increase was a reduction of money taken in?
Imagine a gardener harvesting all of his corn and eating all of his corn and haveing then no seed.


Capitol left to run free reproduces itself , kinda like deer, if you harvest less than the reproductive rate you always have a harvest , but if you harvest just a little more than the rate of reproduction you get progressively less.