Iraq to cost US $141bn this year

[cal04]

US costs to support the Iraq war were likely to top $US110 billion ($141 billion) in the current fiscal year, the White House budget director said today.

Rob Portman said emergency spending for the war effort in the year that started in October would will in excess of $US110bn but a final figure had not yet been reached.

The final amount "depends on a lot of things that are not yet decided, one is policy going forward, which is clearly a major factor", Mr Portman said.

News reports had suggested that the Pentagon will seek between $US127bn and $US160bn in emergency military funds.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20956623-1702,00.html

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

1. That;'s before the "Surge" and the usual cost overruns.

Why is the "defense" industry smiling?

[Gidney N Cloyd]

2. Plus tax, license, delivery surcharge, dealer prep, and our souls.

[roamer65]

3. The Chinese would be smart to dump all 1 trillion in dollar reserves right now.

Get out while they can at have something to show for it.

[SammyWinstonJack]

4. Chimp change! More tax cuts for the ultra wealthy and make 'em permanent!

:bounce: :silly: :party:

[Imagevision]

5. Doens't this have to be passed by congress first?!!

[SammyWinstonJack]

6. ..

:rofl:

[nealmhughes]

7. 141 E9 divided by 300E6= 141E9/3E8= 1410/3= $470.00 based on 300,000,000 in the US.

That is a month's rent for a lot of folks. That is three of four months utilities for those in temporate climates with no a/c or heat ... That is 3 or 4 months of groceries for me as I use between $30-50 max per week... and often less than $20.

At $5.35 per hour that is almost 88 hours of labor without any withholdings in view... over 2 weeks of labor out of only 52, or 1 out of every 26 weeks going to the war for a minimum wage earner.

It is easy for Congress to lose context when they see all the exponents. And that is sad. The soldier has no human face, only flag-draped coffins hidden from view in Dover, and the public has no effective voice...meanwhile we are told that minimum wage increases are bad for the economy and that the estate tax is a horror.

This is the type of per capita debt this war is causing us.

I need not even bother to address the morality of a war of choice and the chaos that is ensuing in Iraq, the upswing in the Taliban in Afghanistan, and the fact that even our own Democratic leadership seem to like the idea of a "surge."

Getting out of this war is necessary as soon as possible. The problems cannot be solved by the West, and certainly not by the US. Hell, we -- the West -- created a great deal of them (the Shah, Iraq coups, Hashemite monarchy and Pahlavi dynasty in the first place after the Versailles Peace Accords).

Does any nation even have a leader of the moral integrity to even address the myriad problems there?

Unfortunately, it takes a broken spirit to admit defeat. Mine is broken with every IED and car bomb account of which I read.

[TahitiNut]

8. AU$1410/3 = US$1100/3 = US$366.67

But the rent comparison would apply, say, to a family of three ... which makes it $1,100 again. That's easily a 3-bedroom, 2 bath, 1200 sq' house with 2-car garage here in the suburbs of Detroit.