Iraq War Costs $5,000 a Second, Claim Democrats, Lining Up Against McCain
By Richard Whalen
CQ politics
April 28, 2008
Congress is preparing to debate President Bush’s latest request for $108 billion in a supplemental packageto continue military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan through next September 30th.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada has calculated the costs of the two wars down to the second – an attention getter in a chamber where billions become blurred in debate.
The big bipartisan push on Capitol Hill is for the Baghdad regime of oil-rich Iraq to be pushed to spend the “financial windfall” of some $60 billion from soaring oil revenues on the country’s “reconstruction.” In a letter to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, a group of 10 senators – six Democrats and four Republicans – declared: “The time has come to end this blank-check policy and require the Iraqis to invest in their own future.”
“The President has not been honest about the costs of the war from the beginning,” said Senator Reid.
Many Republican lawmakers face tough re-election fights and are reacting strongly to grassroots dissatisfaction with the war and its human and financial costs. The U.S. is defending an Iraqi government content to let the U.S. fight the war for its country’s future and pay for it as well.
(Continued here.)
CQ politics
April 28, 2008
Congress is preparing to debate President Bush’s latest request for $108 billion in a supplemental packageto continue military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan through next September 30th.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada has calculated the costs of the two wars down to the second – an attention getter in a chamber where billions become blurred in debate.
The big bipartisan push on Capitol Hill is for the Baghdad regime of oil-rich Iraq to be pushed to spend the “financial windfall” of some $60 billion from soaring oil revenues on the country’s “reconstruction.” In a letter to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, a group of 10 senators – six Democrats and four Republicans – declared: “The time has come to end this blank-check policy and require the Iraqis to invest in their own future.”
“The President has not been honest about the costs of the war from the beginning,” said Senator Reid.
Many Republican lawmakers face tough re-election fights and are reacting strongly to grassroots dissatisfaction with the war and its human and financial costs. The U.S. is defending an Iraqi government content to let the U.S. fight the war for its country’s future and pay for it as well.
(Continued here.)
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2 Comments:
Since its roughly six months until Election Day, Norm Coleman has finally spoken up about how much money is being spent. Alas, not only is he late, but it may not make any difference.
Carl Levin said both Bush and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker were wrong when they asserted that the U.S. was ending its funding of Iraqi reconstruction projects.
On the same day that Crocker made that statement to the armed services panel, Levin said, the Defense Department notified the committee that it was transferring an additional $600 million into reconstruction projects, including 55 new police stations.
UPDATE : http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hwg2GN7JbLB6FD-ks2cIzj_ImUJQ
Gates said he had "decided to not proceed with reallocation of the 171 million identified for police station construction," as part of a larger 590-million-dollar budget for reconstruction funds.
Great ... so they still get $419 million for other reconstruction ?
Is this what Norm Coleman calls Iraq taking financial responsibility ?
America is still supplying too much for reconstruction especially when so many of the projects are prone to overruns, corruption and shoddy workmanship.
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