What should we have done with the hundreds of Billions spent on Iraq War?

[Quixote1818]

Please pick the one you feel most strongly about even if you think the money could have been spent in many ways.

[achtung_circus]

1. I won't vote until you include

an option that would deliver a minimum level of health care to all Americans.

[Quixote1818]

6. Done

[Burried News]

2. Put solar panels on the roof of every Federal Building in the US?

[Roland99]

3. Built my robot....my *girl* robot

Actually....A, B, C and the healthcare one.

[TheFarseer]

4. I would have said balance the budget but

I think the oil crisis really is enough of a crisis to warrant being over-budget. You can't balance the budget after this destroys our entire economy. The oil crisis is certainly a much bigger threat than the one in a million chance that Saddam Hussein would have tried to do something to us.

[longship]

5. Single-Payer Healthcare

n/t

[marbuc]

7. All of the above

Especially alternative energy and health care (not listed as an option).

[benddem]

8. We could spend some of it

sending the entire Bush clan to some remote island. Maybe somewhere we'd never hear from them again.

[seabeyond]

9. with repugs in power, give to rich in more tax breaks

[BlueEyedSon]

10. Arguably, the money was spent on this administration's energy strategy

:crazy:

[julialnyc]

11. money divided among these issues

N/T

[theophilus]

12. Put the money into the Prius (help build more, etc.) and pass out as

many basic models as possible to the Americans that need them the most. Several million free cars to the poorest Americans would transform our society and lives. The increased factory jobs would produce family wealth, too. (If you don't like the Prius, substitute your candidate for the most fuel efficient car here). Of course our nation needs a mass transit system that all could use even without a car but that would take more time. That could be step two.

[John Q. Citizen]

13. We've already given the auto industry millions to develop fuel

efficient cars.

They just don't seem that interested.

Using taxpayer funds to subsidize private industry is a losing strategy, IMO.

We should use the stick instead of the carrot for fuel efficiency.

Yeah, I know, the stick totally contradicts the Republican ideology, but that's a good thing.


Spend the money for a single payer fee for service universal health insurence system, and we will save billions a year to put into the other issues.

[Quixote1818]

14. Instead we flushed it down the toilet, killed a bunch of people

in the process and made us less safe. What a waste!

[Up2Late]

15. O.K., here are some numbers from the National Priorities Project

The approximate cost so far:
<http://costofwar.com/>

The War in Iraq Costs

$188,807,167,419

Instead, we could have hired
3,272,060
additional public school teachers for one year,

Instead, we could have provided
9,152,988
students four-year scholarships at public universities,

Instead, we could have fully funded world-wide AIDS programs for
18 years,

Instead, we could have paid for
25,007,735
children to attend a year of Head Start,

Instead, we could have insured
113,059,010 children for one year,

Instead, we could have fully funded global anti-hunger efforts for
7 years,

Instead, we could have ensured that every child in the world was given basic immunizations for
62 years,

Instead, we could have built
1,700,046 additional (Public) housing units.

Any more questions? If you go to <http://costofwar.com/> They even can break down your home State's numbers.

[ellenfl]

16. health care for all - i would have voted for fuel alternatives but

we, as citizens, have the ability to affect energy policy, beginning with the fuel efficiency of our autos. you can't have your cake and eat it too . . . much as americans try.

if all americans buy only fuel efficient cars, that is what the automakers will produce.

ellen fl

[Dem Agog]

17. well we sure as hell could have stopped all those base closings...

that had to be closed to save a few billion.

frankly though I have little sympathy for some of those military families who keep voting in members of this administration... gee wouldn't it be a more efficient process if you just took your son/husband/brother/wife/daughter/sister out and shot them? and then burned up all of your paychecks? sure you won't get a nifty flag triangle and a cross in arlington cemetery out of it, but it'll still be quicker and easier...

that's what military families are doing everytime they support the bush administration... just save yourself the time, kill your loved ones and burn your money. it would at least show you had a brain and thought for yourself.

[Greyhound]

18. Voted for alternative fuels, but

what is the fascination on this board for continuing and accelerating corporate welfare? :shrug:

[tclambert]

19. Other options

Popular Science a few months back listed a number of high-tech blue-sky projects and their estimated costs. For the cost of the Iraq War we could have:

- built a railroad line across the Atlantic Ocean (Canada to Greenland to Iceland to Scotland, tunnels under the wet parts)

- built an elevator to geosynchronous orbit

- built a couple of Solar Power satellites

- built high-speed passenger train lines between pretty much every major American city

- sent astronauts to the Moon and Mars

Another thing that might be nice would be to pay college tuitions for all the students who can pass the entrance exams.

-TC Lambert

[newyawker99]

20. Hi tclambert!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[bemildred]

21. Schools, schools, schools, and teachers. nt

[ohio_liberal]

22. Hear, hear

School and teachers, and universal health care.

[bemildred]

23. It's all good. With that much money, a lot could be done. nt