Hello everybody.

fuel for the cause:

Little-known fact: Obama's failed stimulus program cost more than the Iraq war
By: Mark Tapscott
Editorial Page Editor
08/23/10 11:32 AM EDT

Expect to hear a lot about how much the Iraq war cost in the days ahead
from Democrats worried about voter wrath against their unprecedented
spending excesses.

The meme is simple: The economy is in a shambles because of Bush's economic
policies and his war in Iraq. As American Thinker's Randall Hoven points
out, that's the message being peddled by lefties as diverse as former
Clinton political strategist James Carville, economist Joseph Stiglitz, and
The Nation's Washington editor, Christopher Hayes.

The key point in the mantra is an alleged $3 trillion cost for the war.
Well, it was expensive to be sure, in both blood and treasure, but, as
Hoven notes, the CBO puts the total cost at $709 billion. To put that
figure in the proper context of overall spending since the war began in
2003, Hoven provides this handy CBO chart showing the portion of the annual
deficit attributable to the conflict:

But there is much more to be said of this data and Hoven does an admirable
job of summarizing the highlights of such an analysis:

* Obama's stimulus, passed in his first month in office, will cost more
than the entire Iraq War -- more than $100 billion (15%) more.

* Just the first two years of Obama's stimulus cost more than the entire
cost of the Iraq War under President Bush, or six years of that war.

* Iraq War spending accounted for just 3.2% of all federal spending while it lasted.

* Iraq War spending was not even one quarter of what we spent on Medicare
in the same time frame.

* Iraq War spending was not even 15% of the total deficit spending in that
time frame. The cumulative deficit, 2003-2010, would have been
four-point-something trillion dollars with or without the Iraq War.

* The Iraq War accounts for less than 8% of the federal debt held by the
public at the end of 2010 ($9.031 trillion).

* During Bush's Iraq years, 2003-2008, the federal government spent more on
education that it did on the Iraq War. (State and local governments spent
about ten times more.)

Just some handy facts to recall during coming weeks as Obama and his
congressional Democratic buddies get more desperate to put the blame for
their spending policies on Bush and the war in Iraq. For more from Hoven,
go here.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Little-kno
wn-fact-Obamas-failed-stimulus-program-cost-more-than-the-Iraq-war-101302919.ht
ml#

Matt

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