The Cost of Iraq War calculator is set to reach $456 billion September 30, 2007, the end of fiscal year 2007. The Cost of Iraq War calculator is occasionally reset based on new information and new allocations of funding. The numbers include military and non-military spending, such as reconstruction. Spending only includes incremental costs, additional funds that are expended due to the war. For example, soldiers’ regular pay is not included, but combat pay is included. Potential future costs, such as future medical care for soldiers and veterans wounded in the war, are not included. It is also not clear whether the current funding will cover all military wear and tear. It also does not account for the Iraq War being deficit-financed and that taxpayers will need to make additional interest payments on the national debt due to those deficits.
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and for what ?
Imagine if the president was putting this money to good use for it’s people… wow …
I guess if you were a real economics nerd, you could also estimate a dollar value for the economic growth that didn’t happen because of all the war related deficit spending.
Yeah – and about 10% went for the troops. 10% for Iraq. 80% for Bushie neoscum!
And guess what..
He gets to LEAVE, and drop it ON ALL OF US…
He wont be paying taxes with his Presidential retirement…
And does this Count all the missing funds?? that went WHOOOPSSS??
I try to tell people the Cost of this war, and when I say BILLIONS, they cant beleave me..
What is worrying is HOW is this war costing so much, WHERE is most of the money going? Private contractors??? I know someone that looked into trucking over there, and it WASNT much better then HERE.
Also found on that site…
$56.5 billion in tax cuts for the wealthiest 1% this year could be spent on the people of Idaho instead. If that money were used to support state and local programs, the residents of Idaho could have $263.2 million, which could provide:
71,659 People with Health Care or
4,994 Elementary School Teachers or
30,543 Head Start Places for Children or
167,075 Children with Health Care or
2,424 Affordable Housing Units or
28 New Elementary Schools or
66,339 Scholarships for University Students or
4,994 Music and Arts Teachers or
6,482 Public Safety Officers or
217,967 Homes with Renewable Electricity or
3,195 Port Container Inspectors
While the figure taken alone looks large, when compared to the wealth of the United States, it fails to be an efficient scare tactic (the war itself 1-2%, the military as a whole 4-5%). The government spending program that worries the majority of serious economists is government entitlement programs, not the war in Iraq.
#2 – Are you an economics nerd? If so, perhaps you’d be willing to share you model that predicts the opportunity cost of this war. Since the war has been paid for by borrowing, the economic effects in the short-run are positive. Long-term, the borrowing is not very expensive, and government restructuring can make the payback feasible without raising taxes. Also, if you’re familiar with the Ricardian Equivalence, government deficit spending does not have an impact on the macroeconomic environment over a long-term horizon. However, it does make great political book.
#3 – Ooh god, that was witty and well thought-out.
#5, Then why don’t the people of Idaho raise their own taxes to pay for their in-state priorities? Instead of relying on the federal government to be an interstate wealth transfer tool.
7,
consider that OVEr 25% of your Taxes last year went to Military spending.
another 19% went to Interest on the Federal debt.
Wouldnt it be nice to know WHO is getting that money, BESIDES CHINA, who the USA gov Borrowed money from to PAY for this war??
Give me your STATE, and lets see what could be paid for…Including HEALTH CARE, Schools(that are falling apart after 60-80 years), A few more police officers…
And considering 3,195 Port Container Inspectors, would be ALOT in this State with only 2 Main highways…and no Ocean front.
Lets just say, that without this war your TAXES would be in your pocket, insted of in CHINA..
6…Explain LONG TERM…
How many of our children, and GRAND children, and GREAT grand children are going to pay for a War, they never faught in…
This is as bad as the Telephone tax from the 1800’s that was never excised until LAST YEAR. 3% on ALL phones, and Cellphones for 100+ years, to pay for Teddies Rough riders, and the Spanish American War… And you are only getting back 3-4 years of that TAX??
#6, Yes I agree that this deficit war spending has a positive short-term effect; though since our economy is already near full employment, the effects are negligible. But, once that spending is over, it is over. As to the deficits, I wasn’t even referring to the idea of borrow now, tax later. My remark was much more simple than that. I’m referring to the fact that every dollar borrowed by the government has to come from somewhere; and as long as those dollars are derived domestically, those are dollars that aren’t being spent by you, me, and others who would use them for growth in areas that won’t retract again after the war dollars stop flowing.
Ever seen a billion dollars in pennies?
http://www.kokogiak.com/megapenny/one.asp
#11, that’s pretty darn cool.
Wow that’s about one year’s worth of Social Security, and not even that much going forward. If they would just pass some sort of reform, we could afford so many more wars.
#6
Sorry Rush – truth hurts. Take some Vikes and lie some more in the morning.
With that amount of money, we could have paid the terrorists to kill off the rest of the Arab world.
There’s more than one way to solve a problem.
# 15 Brilliant, James Hill, as always. That’s this kind of attitude that breeds fanatical idiots on both sides.
… and this colossal waste of money comes after DECADES of sanctimonious conservative finger wagging at the liberals about “tax and spending.”
I’ll be JOYOUS to bring back “tax and spending” rather than the INSANE “borrow and spending” by the conservatives.
>>It also does not account for the Iraq War being deficit-financed and that taxpayers will need to make additional interest payments on the national debt due to those deficits.
I tried to Google it once and the best I could estimate was about an additional 80% on deficit spending. So the figure is about 760 BILLION — as of today.
I think this figure doesn’t include the replacement costs of previously budgeted arms and equipment that will need to be replaced. This will be a HUGE bill to us tax payers.
Another HUGE item not counted in this figure is the DECADES LONG cost of treating the wounded veterans nor the loss of labor to the economy and the lost taxes they would have paid.
The really bad part?
ALL OF THIS ONLY TO MAKE THINGS WORSE!
It’s too horrific to contemplate.
Greg, revenues are up under George Bush. The borrowing is because of exploding spending.
Here’s something you can’t put a dollar amount. I wonder how many American children have lost a parent in the war in Iraq in the past 4+ years. It must be in the thousands.
For that money we could have paid off Iran Iraq Syria, etc not to cause trouble. They probably would have handed over Bin Laden, and we’d have more oil on the market (from Iraq.) Sure it would have meant that the Kurds get slaughtered by Saddam as his price, but that’s OK. We’d also have to back off of the Shia in Southern Iraq who we were protecting. But we would have saved hundreds of billions of dollars. And had a shorter wait time at the airport. Unfortunately we’d still have a huge deficit.
Why don’t they do the same thing with the cost of not passing Social Security reform. Between that and Medicare the government is looking at close to 100 TRILLION dollars in liabilities in the future. A reform there gives you hundreds and hundreds of billions a year.
And you wonder why Halliburten Cheney wanted to start a war. He will not only be able to live well in Dubai, but provide his own army if future US presidents want to invade and bring him back for trial.
Where did all the small government minded people go? I don’t want them to spend any of my money. Think what you could do with that sum.
#16 – You’re saying being fanatical about Democracy… or Capitalism… is a bad thing, especially in the face of those who are against both?
456 thousand million $ down the rat hole.
and for what?
How much does a few “paid for” cold war nukes cost?
I say we cash in the chips and leave this casino.
Cost of Iraq war: $423,234,024,885.87
Presidential salary for 8 years: 2 million
The look on Bush’s face when he realizes that thousands died because of him and the Iraqis will always kill each other: Priceless.
http://www.codershangout.com
19,
revenues are UP, taxes lower’d for the upper class and corps…6 years ago.
22, IF they would just PAY back SS, the money they OWE…Forget the 5% interest…SS would be solvent. And THEN some.
If the GOV. would start supplying there OWN Business, and workers INSTED of paying CORPS to do it at 10 times the COST…AS they USED to do. The GOV would be much cheaper.
For some reason the agencies of our GOV have little power, and dont enforce SQUAT, and the fines, are NOTHING…
If they were the county/city police, they would have to be making their QUOTAS….
umm, no SS would not be solvent if they ‘paid back’ the money. The future liabilities are in the hundreds of billions per year, and that amount was never taken. Plus without personal accounts then there would be no place to put all this money anyway. The government shortfall happens now because the money coming in is lower than the money going out.
ECA, I do respect some of the things you say, but do you really need to use capital letters on so many words? The overabundance of “yelling” words are rather detracting from the words that I could see a reason to yell about.
And my thoughts on this issue? F it. James, you got a key code?
29, but the Money going OUT is going to the general fund.
The general fund Owes SS, something close to $100 billion.
Even if the International bank would only give them 5% interest, I dont think it would run out that fast.
If you really want to FIX it…tho..
Lets not Cap, the Maximum amount to pay into it. which i think is $100,000…
Lets CAP, the maximum monthly alotment. Does the Federal retirement COME from SS funds?? Ford was making $400,000 per year..
Lets tax part of the tax from Federal employees, and congress and reps, and the president, WHO DONT PAY.
Or take ALL the money thats going to retirement funds, and SHIP it to SS(they get ripped off anyway(retirement funds)), and USE it for those PERSONS SS.