IRAQ: ‘Stay the Course’ Funding Battle Begins

IRAQ: “Stay the Course” Funding Battle Begins

It was only a matter of time before someone had the spine to stand
up and ask the question.

If you're looking for spine, Rep. John Murtha is your man.

So, do you want to continue funding Bush's “stay the course” Iraq insanity, sacrificing what needs to
be done here at home?

We will continue to aid Iraq monetarily in many ways, but the
never ending financial spigot has got to be rerouted. Murtha lays it out.

Or, let me add, you can skip it and listen to Joe.

We are spending $8 billion a month in Iraq. That equates to $2 billion a week, or $267 million a day, or $11 million an hour. The following are some comparisons between what we are spending in Iraq as we “stay the course” indefinitely and what those funds could be used for instead. I've been fighting for our military to get out of Iraq because I'm concerned about the loss of our troops and the future of our military, and also because I believe they have accomplished their mission there and the Iraqis must resolve their internal conflict themselves. However, I also wanted to demonstrate what these expenses mean to domestic policy in the United States and give you an idea of just some of the things that what we could accomplish with this amount of money. NATIONAL SECURITY $31.7 billion/yr Homeland Security budget FY 07 (4 months in Iraq) $10 billion (1-time) Equipping commercial airliners with defenses against shoulder-fired (5 weeks in Iraq) missiles $8.6 billion/7 years Shortage of international aid needed to rebuild Afghanistan (one month in Iraq) $5.2 billion (1-time) Estimated need for capital improvements to secure public transportation (3 weeks in Iraq) system (trains, subways, buses) $1.5 billion/year Radiation detectors needed at all US ports (rejected due to cost) (5 days in Iraq) $1.4 billion/ year Double the COPS (community police grants) program (5 days in Iraq) $800 million/year Public transportation personnel training and technical support (72 hours in Iraq) $700 million/year 100% screening of all air cargo – rejected because of (2 days in Iraq) cost (1/4 of domestic shipping and 1/2 of international shipping is done on passenger planes) $350 million (1-time) Make emergency radio systems interoperable (5 years after 9/11, this (1.2 days in Iraq) hasn't happened yet) $500 million/year Double the firefighters’ grant program (2 days in Iraq) $94 million/year Restore cuts to cities hit on 9/11 in Homeland Security budget (8-1/2 hours in Iraq) HEALTH CARE/VETERANS $36 billion/5 years reduction for Medicare spending in president's fiscal year 2007 (FY 07) (4-1/2 months in Iraq) budget $5 billion/5 years Cut in Medicaid in President's FY 2007 budget (2-1/2 weeks in Iraq) $2.5 billion/5 years VA health care premium increases in this year's budget. Premiums will (9 days in Iraq) double or triple and drug co-payments will increase, costing our military retirees $2.4 billion over 5 years $100 million Additional funding recommended for mental health research for veterans (9 hours in Iraq) $48 million Medical and prosthetic research for veterans (half a day in Iraq) $65 million/yr National Institutes of Health research funding cuts in this year's budget (6 hours in Iraq) (scientists are leaving the field of health research because funding has been cut so severely) $15 billion/yr Provide health insurance to 9 million children with no health insurance (1-1/2 weeks in Iraq) $118 million/yr The Commodity Supplemental Food Program, which provides (12 hours in Iraq) nutritional food packages for less than $20 a month to more than 400,000 elderly people – eliminated in the president's budget … … Murtha compares cost of war and domestic expenses – A Report by Congressman John Murtha