War Costs, While High, Are A Small Part Of Budget Deficits -- McClatchy News
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama insisted last week that as the nation confronts record government debt and pressing economic needs at home, it cannot afford a lengthy, ambitious nation-building effort in Afghanistan — but limiting U. S. involvement is unlikely to make much of a dent in the record federal debt.
Liberals complain that the war has been a big contributor to the nation's budget problems, and are insisting that some way be found to pay for the buildup.
But the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, though they've virtually all been funded by deficit spending, are not the main reason why the publicly held national debt has more than doubled — from $3.339 trillion to $7.709 trillion — since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
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My Comment: A couple of bucks here .... a few dollars there .... it all adds up after a few years ..... and is it ever adding up.
1 comment:
The author needs a reality check.
He tries to blame medicare and social security for massive debt.
The trillion dollars we've spent in Afghanistan and Iraq....just a small amount.
No one is complaining about Social Security (which will help our elderly in their retirement years) or Medicare (which will helped to pay so our parent's can get the medications they need.
If the author lives to 65 he'll benefit from Social Security and Medicare..Just like my parents did and his parents before him.
What many American's object to is paying for something for which Americans will get NO BENEFIT.
Paying a trillion dollars to bombing Iraq and then paying again to rebuild Iraqi roads, schools, hospitals and bridges. Pay again to train and equip their entire army. Pay again to train and equip their entire police force. Pay again to bribe their insurgents not to fire on American troops.
That's all wasted money.
We won't benefit from it at all.
Sure...It's nice to bring democracy and freedom to people in foreign lands.
But to spend our children's money to do so...forget it. Especially when foreign countries can afford to pay their fair share.
The Iraqis are sitting on top of the world's 3rd largest oil reserves. They actually have a surplus in their treasury.
So how much have they contributed to the war to show appreciation for the freedom and democracy we've brought them??
Nothing.
Similarly for the last 60 years we have had hundreds of thousands of US troops scattered across the globe , providing security and protection to nations like England, Germany, Japan and Korea. And we are footing the bill for the lions share of the cost.
(There's probably a couple of trillion dollars there.)
If people want the US armed forces to step up and protect them...they should pay for it.
If they won't pay, it probably means they don't appreciate what we are doing.
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