Progressive Talking Points 2/9/06

That Mess in Iraq

This past Monday the Bush administration released its annual budget request to Congress. This administration has never been one for truth in accounting. This budget was no different, considering that the single largest defense expenditure in our nation’s history was completely left out. Amid growing discontent within the President’s own party, the administration’s budget called for no new funding for Iraq – it plans to submit a separate supplemental funding bill later this spring. But even more disheartening is the lack of direction in the reconstruction process. After months of public relations ploys, the American public and the people of Iraq are waiting for a real plan that outlines costs, timelines and real progress.

• Anger over the direction of Iraq is bipartisan. On the lack of consistency and direction of Secretary Rumsfeld’s funding requests, Arizona Republican John McCain quipped, “I don't know how you can call it an emergency anymore.” He added, “It's got to stop. Your requests have got to be included in the normal process." Virginia Republican Sen. John Warner, the committee chairman, said the White House has "failed to bring together all of the resources necessary."
  
  
• The Bush administration has bungled the Iraq reconstruction. President Bush has consistently cut and run on Iraq's reconstruction over the last two-and-a-half years. He did not get rid of the corruption in reconstruction, oil production is still at pre-war levels, and Iraqis throughout the country are still not getting enough electricity.
  
  
• By next year the American people will have spent half a trillion dollars in Iraq with not enough progress. Combining Donald Rumsfeld’s recent $439 billion budget request with another $70 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan this year and $50 billion earmarked for early next year, both wars’ fiscal tally will have approached a staggering $500 billion. Such expenditures would be warranted, yet the lack of progress in the rebuilding of Iraq forces one to ask how much these wars will end up costing the American people.