U.S. NATIONAL DEBT CLOCK
The Outstanding Public Debt as of 20 Jul 2008 at 08:28:03 PM GMT is: 9,523,064,965,628.63 .
The estimated population of the United States is 304,391,410, so each citizen's share of this debt is $31,285.59. The National Debt has continued to increase an average of$1.74 billion per day since September 28, 2007!
http://brillig.com/debt_clock/
"OLDER MEN DECLARE WAR. BUT IT IS YOUTH THAT MUST FIGHT AND DIE. AND IT IS YOUTH WHO MUST INHERIT THE TRIBULATION, THE SORROW, AND THE TRIUMPHS THAT ARE THE AFTERMATH OF WAR." ---Herbert Hoover
"WHAT IF SOMEBODY GAVE A WAR AND NOBODY CAME? LIFE WOULD RING THE BELLS OF ECSTASY AND FOREVER BE ITSELF AGAIN." ---Allen Ginsberg
So far the cost of the Iraq War is $611.5 billion. It is estimated the cost will eventually exceed $3 trillion, which is a conservative estimate.
(From The Washington Post, March 9, 2008)
"President Bush tried to sell the American people on the idea that we could have a war with little or no economic sacrifice. Even after the United States went to war, Bush and Congress cut taxes, especially on the rich -- even though the United States already had a massive deficit. So the war had to be funded by more borrowing (our greatest indebtedness is to Japan and China). By the end of the Bush administration, the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, plus the cumulative interest on the increased borrowing used to fund them, will have added about $1 trillion to the national debt.
The long-term burden of paying for the conflicts will curtail the country's ability to tackle other urgent problems, no matter who wins the presidency in November. Our vast and growing indebtedness inevitably makes it harder to afford new health-care plans, make large-scale repairs to crumbling roads and bridges, or build better-equipped schools. Already, the escalating cost of the wars has crowded out spending on virtually all other discretionary federal programs, including the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration the Environmental Protection Agency, and federal aid to states and cities, all of which have been scaled back significantly since the invasion of Iraq."
(From "The Opportunity Cost of War" tompaine.com, Sep 28, 2006)
"Every dollar spent on the Iraq War is a dollar we cannot spend on addressing other priorities, whether abroad or at home. Economists call this an ‘opportunity cost.’ But all of these dollars are dollars that could have been directed toward meeting other needs and investing in our future. In fact, that amount of money could have provided health care coverage for all uninsured children for as long as the Iraq War has lasted; provided four-year scholarships (tuition and fees) to a public university for all of this year’s graduating seniors; built half a million affordable housing units; fully-funded the amount the Coast Guard estimated is needed for port security; tripled the energy conservation budget in the U.S. Department of Energy; and still enough would be left over to reduce this year’s budget deficit by one-third.
After three and a half years of the Iraq War, much has happened in the U.S. that speaks to our elected officials’ priorities. During the same period of time, the number and percentage of people without health insurance—private, government or otherwise—has risen. Many more are under-insured and have large out-of-pocket costs for health care. A recent study found that half of all bankruptcies filed were at least in part due to unaffordable health care bills.
The poverty rate continues to hover around 12 percent, more than a third of which are children. The median household income and median family income have declined and stagnated. The jobs that have been gained since the last recession are primarily low wage. Meanwhile, income inequality has grown. The share of income going to the “bottom” four-fifths of all families has declined, while the wealthiest one-fifth of families’ share has increased.
Yet, since the Iraq War began, no event speaks more about the divestment in our infrastructure and in our families than Hurricane Katrina. The hurricane exposed the poverty that exists in this nation of wealth. But the hurricane also exposed what happens when we neglect our infrastructure."
U.S. Military Deaths (Iraq) 4124
U.S. Military Wounded (Iraq) 30409
Iraqi Civilian Deaths 151000
"Excess" Iraqi Deaths 655000
And last, but certainly not least, John McCain's opinion on the war (Mother Jones, Jan 3, 2008):
"The United States military could stay in Iraq for "maybe a hundred years" and that "would be fine with me," John McCain told two hundred or so people at a town hall meeting in Derry, New Hampshire, on Thursday evening. Toward the end of this session, which was being held shortly before the Iowa caucuses were to start, McCain was confronted by Dave Tiffany, who calls himself a "full-time antiwar activist." In a heated exchange, Tiffany told McCain that he had looked at McCain's campaign website and had found no indication of how long McCain was willing to keep U.S. troops in Iraq. Arguing that George W. Bush's escalation of troops has led to a decline in U.S. casualties, McCain noted that the United States still maintains troops in South Korea and Japan. He said he had no objection to U.S. soldiers staying in Iraq for decades, "as long as Americans are not being injured, harmed or killed."
After the event ended, I asked McCain about his "hundred years" comment, and he reaffirmed the remark, excitedly declaring that U.S. troops could be in Iraq for "a thousand years" or "a million years," as far as he was concerned..."
Gee...I wonder how we'll afford that???
2 comments:
God that was depressing. You're a ray of sunshine. :)
Well said.
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