$1.7 Billion is all it will cost US taxpayers to rebuild Iraq....

[RedEarth]

Just a slight miscalculation...

Ode to Natsios
Andrew Natsios, chief of the U.S. Agency for International Development, has resigned.

Let’s take a moment to reflect on one of Natsios’s most famous miscalculations:

TED KOPPEL: I mean, when you talk about 1.7, you’re not suggesting that the rebuilding of Iraq is gonna be done for $1.7 billion?

NATSIOS: Well, in terms of the American taxpayers contribution, I do, this is it for the US.
…
KOPPEL: You’re saying the, the top cost for the US taxpayer will be $1.7 billion. No more than that?

NATSIOS: For the reconstruction. And then there’s 700 million in the supplemental budget for humanitarian relief, which we don’t competitively bid ’cause it’s charities that get that money.

KOPPEL: I understand. But as far as reconstruction goes, the American taxpayer will not be hit for more than $1.7 billion no matter how long the process takes?

NATSIOS: That is our plan and that is our intention. And these figures, outlandish figures I’ve seen, I have to say, there’s a little bit of hoopla involved in this.

A few months after the war began, Congress apporpriated $18.4 billion for the reconstruction of Iraq. Approximately $10.5 billion has already been obligated. The United Nations and World Bank have estimated $55 billion would be needed in rebuilding costs through 2007. And the CBO has estimated the reconstruction of Iraq could range anywhere from $50 to $100 billion.

President Bush, give that man a medal.

See video of the exchange here.....

http://thinkprogress.org/2005/12/02/ode-to-natsios/

[azmouse]

1. A few billion here, a few billion there...

Pretty soon we'll be talking about real money!

It burns me up to see our tax money being wasted when so much needs to be done here.

[Ezlivin]

2. Hell! That's all? Let me whip out my checkbook...

There's plenty more where that came from, since it's all on the taxpayer's back.

[papau]

3. I miss our NATSIOS - Big Dig head, Agency for Int'l Dev.head- and now gone

The young get rich so quickly - sometimes.

[louis-t]

4. $9 billion still missing.

Crooks and liars. Isn't ANYONE except DU listening?

[Al-CIAda]

5. 3.4 TRILLION missing, gone, vanished, from the Pentagon in the last 5 year

[papau]

6. Not properly accounted for - true - but 3.4T IS NOT missing

The Pentagon refuses to use the Treasury accounting model, so there are category mis-matches.

In addition the Pentagon inventory numbers are a joke.

But a trillion dollar theft ??? - - nope -did not happen.

[LSK]

8. are you kidding???

Of course its stolen. Defense contractors are lining their pockets with our money. And giving payouts to folks like "Duke" Cunningham.

[papau]

9. Just about every dollar that is stolen by defense contractors

has been put into the books as an expense to that contractor!

The Trillion number comes from Treasury audits of Pentagon books. The Treasury and the Pentagon do not use the same names for similar accounts and an account on the books of the Treasury may equate to portions of many accounts on the other side.

The audit result is an inability by Treasury to match paid out expenses at the Pentagon to the Congressional Bills that authorized them. The Treasury - and Pentagon - then must do special audits for each bill's monies, which is a pain in the ass.

The 3.4T "suspense account" (which is where you put things in an audit when you are not sure of the line or account name they belong under) is then the result of this 2 different accounting systems and the inability to easily match one set of books to another.

But There is theft going on. A Ernst and Young outside audit of the DOE found two separate thefts - both over a million dollars but not by much.

The 3.4T number is a deliberate misuse of a Treasury report - it is not money that is missing.

The $8 to 9 billion in Iraq actually is money that is perhaps missing in that even the Pentagon can not say what it was spent on - or if it was stolen.

[Loonman]

7. "Cakewalk"

...said Richard Perle.