It's The War Economy....

To paraphrase the words of former President Bill Clinton, it’s the war economy stupid. According to the latest CNN News poll, fully 71% of Americans believe that the war is partially to blame for the current economic problems. So, on the fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq, let’s take a look at the economic impact of the war, whose costs have reached total spending of $504 billion. Now, If you are like me and you don’t even know how many zeroes are in a billion, I thought I would break those numbers down a bit, based upon figures supplied by the National Priorities Project (www.nationalpriorities.org).

So far we have spent an average of $100 billion per year. Translated to a more personal level that means each and every man, woman and child in America have personally contributed $1,680 or for a family of four, their five year contribution totals $6,720. To those families facing foreclosure due to increased mortgage costs, that could go a long way to help pay down some of their debt.

As a country, what could we have done with these war funds which have all been paid for through borrowing against future generations. The annual war spending totals $100 billion, or $1.9 billion a week, and on a daily basis we are spending $27 million. If that sounds like a lot of money it is because it IS! What else could that money have bought? Based upon the figures provided by the National Priorities Project, and a few simple calculations, we see how far that much money can go if it were focused on human needs and not war.

One hundred billion dollars a year can buy:
Health insurance for all 47 million uninsured people, and
One million college scholarships at $6,000 each, and
One thousand new or refurbished elementary schools, and
Fifty thousand elementary school teachers, and
One million units of affordable housing, and
Five hundred thousand Head Start spaces, and
Fifty-five billion dollars left over for infrastructure repairs on bridges, highways, mass transit improvements and retrofitting public buildings for energy conservation, creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs.