US SPENDING IN IRAQ

Spent & Approved War-Spending - About $600 billion of US taxpayers' funds. President Bush has requested another $200 billion for 2008, which would bring the cumulative total to close to $800 billion.

U.S. Daily Spending in Iraq - oover $270 million, in November 2007

Cost of deploying one U.S. soldier for one year in Iraq - $390,000 (Congressional Research Service)

Lost & Unaccounted for in Iraq - $9 billion of US taxpayers' money and $549.7 milion in spare parts shipped in 2004 to US contractors.

So..... never mind what we've spent on the war, never mind arguing about the war, just focus on what we've lost (besides all the precious lives) - almost as much money in the Iraq war as the entire round of auctions brought in this month.

So... never mind the ongoing arguments about shoulda woulda coulda and just take note that the same government that doesn't know where 9 billion bucks of war money went is going to spend $146 billion on a stimulus package to make up for the raping of the economy by the Bush administration. Does anybody in their right mind believe that a check for 600 dollars is going to change their own financial situation?

..........

Only 9 billion, whew, I thought there was some serious money they couldn't account for.

If you take the number of soldiers ar Fort Rucker, and divide it into the base operating costs, you will probably come up with about the same number.

"President Bush's 2009 budget will virtually freeze most domestic programs and seek nearly $200 billion in savings from federal health care programs, a senior administration official said Thursday."

So in essence, Bush wants to take money from health care and dole it out as a "stimulus." What a putz.

Of course, in a presidential election year, his budget will be DOA when he submits it to Congress. Still, this kind of thinking is reprehensible, like most everything else he's done.

Yes...but what about that big $13.7 billion that came in from the spectrum auctions? How much of that will be spent in the $40 DTV converter box rebate program?

None. By the time that money is realized, the program will be over.

> None. By the time that money is realized, the program will be over.

Lovely! (Sarcasm intended here.)

Tax cuts for the rich and war spending has to come from somewhere, so they cut all domestic spending, plus borrow more from China to pay for it. Not only is it bad policy, the financing behind the bad policy is even worse.

China will have that money to spare because they spent the last year making a pantload of DTV converters.

Spectrum auctions seem to be a bit like their BLM counterparts. Money changes hands, we never see it, and investors laugh quietly to themselves before they tear up the landscape.