$56 B - $33 B = $23 B. Where is it coming from?

[gulliver]

Just curious. Does anyone know where the balance of the $56 B that is supposedly needed to reconstruct Iraq is coming from? Is that the United States too?

I'm just noticing that Bush always seems to misplace billions of dollars whenever he talks, and he's still melting our national credit card with all of the spending activity.

Link: http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-fg-donors25oct25000421,1,5778763.story

[kentuck]

1. Colin Powell more or less said it would be added to next years Defense

Budget? This was an emergency supplement. They should not have any more emergency requests.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

2. hey they'll just print some more of those spanking new twenties

plenty more where they came from...

[alcuno]

3. Where is it coming from? The wallets of US taxpayers.

Think of someone taking out a loan in your name that you did not want. That's where the money is coming from.

20 billion US pledge

13 billion foreign pledges (the bulk are LOANS to Iraq or maybe they're loans to us since we're the official occupying power.)

23 billion to go. Either the US pays for it OR it doesn't get done.

[Spazito]

4. Well, it is amazing for what these article DON'T say...

International Monetary Fund — $850 million in loans next year, about $2.5 billion to $4.25 billion through 2007.

World Bank — $3 billion to $5 billion in loans over five years


What they don't say on these loans is that the US is a "major" shareholder in these two organizations and therefore the US taxpayers will be on the hook for the majority of these loans which will most likely be unrecoverable.

Another point not mentioned is that there is the likelyhood that some of these monies are not new donations/loans, I believe some are just a reiteration of what had been pledged before.

[xray s]

5. Don't forget to add interest expense to our piece of this pie

Since we are borrowing money to fund our piece, the real cost to the US taxpayer will be far more than the initial cash outlay.