July 16, 2004
ENDING HISTORY ON THE CHEAP:
Expenses We Cannot Afford (Rep. José E. Serrano, July 16, 2004, In These Times)
It is difficult to comprehend what all those zeros mean, but the sad reality is that they represent billions of dollars worth of lost opportunities for ordinary Americans. The $400 billion we are in the process of sinking into Iraq could have fundamentally transformed America—brought millions out of poverty, ended the deficit, improved our schools, trains and hospitals. With New York’s share of the cost alone, we could have hired 214,000 school teachers in our state, built 161,000 housing units for New York families or put 175,000 more cops onto our streets. With the money we’ve already sunk into Iraq, we could have provided medical insurance for every uninsured child in America for more than 12 years.
Put another way, for less than 18% of one year of Federal expenditures we've liberated Iraq from the most murderous tyrant of the past several decades and are rebuilding it into a democracy. At bargain prices like that we could do one a year until at least North Korea, Cuba, and Syria are likewise on the path to liberal democracy. Posted by Orrin Judd at July 16, 2004 6:57 PM
If Iraq ends up as another gangster state or a mullocracy, do I get my money back?
Posted by: Harry Eagar at July 16, 2004 8:09 PMPut another way, who cares about a bunch of Iraqis? We Americans deserve Utopia!
Posted by: Baillie at July 16, 2004 8:25 PMMr. Eager;
Just as soon as I get my money back from the failed social utopian schemes Mr. Serrano favors.
Posted by: Annoying Old Guy at July 16, 2004 9:28 PMAOG:
Right on! All Serrano wants is $400 billion more to play with. He should go earn it himself.
Posted by: jim hamlen at July 16, 2004 10:53 PMThis reminds me of a guy in high school who used to say "an MX missile (this was in the 80s) costs $1BN, we could hire xx teacher or xxx for health care for that money". Even in high school I knew he was an idiot.
Posted by: AWW at July 16, 2004 10:59 PMI've used a different analogy: If there is a rash of violent crime in my neighborhood, I may choose to spend money on home security, and may borrow against the equity in the house to do it. In any event, it was not money that was otherwise planned or "available" for vacations, meals, cars, clothes or other day-to-day things, no matter what my wife or kids may say.
Likewise if my home suffers fire damage, I will spend some unplanned money to put things in order and protect against further damage -- money I may not have planned to spend today on any of the countless things I want.
The crime or the fire, and the resulting money I spend because of them, do not invalidate all of my other spending priorities. They are prudent reactions to unforeseen circumstances. But this is a level of logic that Mr. Serrano is not interested in, since it gets in the way of his obscene rants.
Posted by: Dave Sheridan at July 17, 2004 6:32 AMHarry:
Did you get a refund for Eastern Europe and Germany after WWII?
Posted by: oj at July 19, 2004 2:16 PMNo, but I did for the Low Countries, Norway, France, Italy and Greece.
Posted by: Harry Eagar at July 19, 2004 3:46 PMAre there any countries on your list that we don't still have troops based in?
Posted by: oj at July 19, 2004 4:03 PM