White House: Reality Of Iraq War Has A Well-Known Liberal Bias
White House: Reality Of Iraq War Has A Well-Known Liberal Bias
Yesterday, Congress’s Joint Economic Committee produced a report finding that the “hidden” economic costs of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars totaled approximately $1.5 trillion, costing the average U.S. family of four more than $20,000. (View the full report here.) The total includes higher oil prices, the expense of treating wounded veterans, and interest payments on the money borrowed to pay for the wars.
While acknowledging that she hadn’t “seen the report,” White House Press Secretary Dana Perino nevertheless derided it yesterday as “an attempt to muddy the waters.” Today, Office of Management and Budget chief Jim Nussle added his own attack on the report:
Office of Management and Budget director Jim Nussle blasted a congressional report that pegged the cost of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan at $1.6 trillion through next year, saying the study by the Joint Economic Committee was “clearly partisan.”
Stephen Colbert once remarked, “Reality has a well-known liberal bias.” Colbert was joking; Nussle is not. Responding to Nussle’s comments, Israel Klein — a spokesman for the Joint Economic Committee — told ThinkProgress:
Unfortunately for the White House, reality is not partisan. The Bush administration has now requested a total of over $800 billion for the direct costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Borrowing this money has resulted in an additional $60 billion in interest on war-related debt so far, with decades of future payments to come. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated that even if troop levels in Iraq and Afghanistan are reduced by more than half over the next five years, total Federal expenditures for the two wars and interest on war-related debt will total $2.4 trillion.
The total economic costs estimated by the JEC add a reasonable and conservative assessment of the additional non-budgetary costs created by the wars on to these figures. These costs were assessed using standard economic methods and widely accepted assumptions. We stand by our report, and welcome inquiries concerning our methodology and assumptions.
The same administration that has been so unwilling to call on Americans to make sacrifices for war is now frightened by the prospect of the public discovering why sacrifice was needed.
UPDATE: When the CBO revealed in October that the Iraq war costs could total $2 trillion, Perino said she’s “not worried about the number.”
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Please tell me this is all a We're-in-the-shower-in-the TV-show-Dallas dream.
November 14th, 2007 at 6:03 pmPerino said she’s “not worried about the number.â€
Well, of course not, GW666, Darth Dick and all their War Profiting buddies are getting stinking rich on the US coffers and she's getting paid to say that. It's the rest of us that are gonna be paying that for a very, very, very long time.
Buck Fush
November 14th, 2007 at 6:10 pmYeah, I'm surprised. Dana Perina isn't worried about that number. Now THAT is news. She's been talking to Barbara about not letting things upset her beautiful mind.
So is anyone going to do anything about this. NO.
November 14th, 2007 at 6:14 pmOf course she isn't worried... she's an f-in' idiot.
November 14th, 2007 at 6:14 pmDana Perino reminds me of a perky Eva Braun. Always gazing into Bush's eyes, asking for more war stories: "Dear fuhrer please tell me again how you liberated the Iraqis. Tell me again how the entire world is wrong about you. Why can't they see your genius as I do?".
Bush surrounds himself with dim witted sychophants.
November 14th, 2007 at 6:26 pmDoesn't matter that much if the "real number" is $800 Billion or $1.5 Triliion. Whatever it is, it's hundreds of billions of dollars down the toilet, thousands of US troops died for nothing, hundreds of thousands of civilians died for a lie. The international standing of the United States is besmirched, the terrorists are back at full strength, the Taliban are resurgent, Pakistan about to explode, warmongering against another country that didn't attack us (Iran).
All a waste.
November 14th, 2007 at 6:33 pmWhy should the airheaded blonde be worried about the numbers?
November 14th, 2007 at 6:36 pmThey don't affect her; she has been completely and absolutely brainwashed - she will believe der fuhrer no matter what he says. Any words to the contrary are to be dismissed.
Frankly, most of the families in the country should be very upset that the war's cost is up to $20,900/family.
That's a little too much to shave from the grocery budget. But people like Bush, Perino, et al., have "people" who take care of details for them; they don't have to muddy their minds with trivia like that - that is for the peons. This is just another chapter of the Bush/Marie Antoinette mind-set -- they have no bread? let them eat cake.
Interesting how that works, isn't it...?
Everything the Busheviks don't like is "clearly partisan" or has a "liberal bias"...
November 14th, 2007 at 6:38 pmEverything the Busheviks don’t like is “clearly partisan†or has a “liberal biasâ€â€¦
Comment by Leftside Annie
If only Bush's hemorrhoids had a liberal bias, we might be ok.
November 14th, 2007 at 6:43 pm9 - Here's wishing him some REAL itchy ones, Strat. :o)
November 14th, 2007 at 6:49 pmHere’s wishing him some REAL itchy ones, Strat. :o)
Comment by Leftside Annie
Yeah. You got to be careful with those bicycle seats...
November 14th, 2007 at 7:05 pmJim Nussle is a former Republican Congressman from Iowa so he is a fine one to be throwing around the partisan charge.
Besides, if someone is going to lob the partisan charge they are obligated to provide credible data from a non-partisan source. Since Nussle made no attempt to display and refute the partisan language he is simply being a demagogue.
November 14th, 2007 at 7:12 pmDo you think it's possible that all this future debt may some day lead to higher taxes?
Hmm...
November 14th, 2007 at 7:14 pmGuess the committee neglected to check with the WH before reaching its conclusions. Strange how facts seem to "muddy" the WH waters. It is always interesting that they rarely refute these reports. Instead they attack the people and not the data. Sorry WH, Americans have you figured out. . . time to deal with the reality of your mess.
November 14th, 2007 at 7:21 pmDana Purina (sorry, that's an insult to animal feed) is no help here!
The RePugniScums had to pick her to get Tony Snow off the hook as the biggest dumbass to every hold the job!!!
November 14th, 2007 at 7:23 pmStrange how facts seem to “muddy†the WH waters.
The WH waters already were muddy, this committee is just shining a light on it so we can all see the mud. :)
November 14th, 2007 at 7:24 pmeconomic costs of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars totaled approximately $1.5 trillion...
wow... very close to the 1.3 (or 1.7) trillion in bush tax cuts...
71% of which went to the top 20% of income earners...
huh...
November 14th, 2007 at 7:25 pmtop 20% of income earners…
Comment by katy — November 14, 2007 @ 7:25 pm
Actually 1% not 20%.
Here's how you know if you are in the top 1%. You must clear (after taxes trolls) 1+ million dollars a MONTH!!!
November 14th, 2007 at 7:29 pmdixie - i just paraphrased (plagiarized?) from this:
Bush's tax cuts have gone overwhelmingly to the very richest of Americans. Of $1.7 trillion in total cuts, $578 billion or 33% went to the top 1% of income earners according to Citizens for Tax Justice. The top 20% of income earners received 71% of all tax cuts.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0108-20.htm
November 14th, 2007 at 7:56 pmThis is the message that the Democrats need to pound day after day after day until the sheeple finally get it. If they can't see the wrongness of occupying another country, perhaps they can see the wrongness of their children and great grandchildren paying for Bush's folly. I truly believe that most Americans have no idea what this war is costing us, financially, morally and physically.
November 14th, 2007 at 7:56 pmAnd the SOBs will all be dead and gone when my grand kids are being crushed under these crooks' debt!
November 14th, 2007 at 8:05 pmKaty,
"33% went to the top 1%" (from your link and quote)
I was wrong, instead of 20% going to the "top 1%" it was "33%." Proves my point even further!!!
November 14th, 2007 at 8:13 pm$2,500,000,000.
It's just a number.
3864 Dead Americans.
It's just a number.
Meanwhile, let's make tax cuts for the Ruling Class permanent, and veto Healthcare and Education for children.
November 14th, 2007 at 9:06 pmHahahahahahaaaaa! I still remeber the arrogancy of the WAR CRIMINAL Rumsfeld saying that it would be a quick War and an a cheap one too!!!! Hahahahaha! You don't need islamic extremists to destroy the US. You have the WAR CRIMINALS in the White House and in the Pentagon doing it for them, very efficiently!!!! The US is hated around the globe, its image revelled (Abu Graib, Fahlujah, Guantanamo Bay...) and uncle Sam will have a hell of a lot of trouble trying to sell his fish next time! Hahahahahaha! 3860!!!!Hahahahahahahahaaaaaa!
November 14th, 2007 at 9:39 pmA senior adviser to Bush told this to Suskind. ...guys like me were â€in what we call the reality-based community,†which he defined as people who â€believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.†I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. â€That’s not the way the world really works anymore,†he continued. â€We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.â€
- Ron Suskind “Without a Doubtâ€
And that is what they are doing and have been doing since 2001. They do what ever they damn well please and the people have to clean up their mess. "If they haven't got bread, let them eat cake," is a very current attitude coming out of BushCo. "What's a few trillion bucks?" I'm not worried about it, she says! Set up the head seperator, folks. Maybe it will put some sense of reality on the table.
November 14th, 2007 at 9:40 pmWAR CRIMINALS SHOULD NOT BE IN CHARGE, THEY SHOULD BE TRIED AND EXECUTED!
November 14th, 2007 at 9:40 pmTWO MILLION OF CIVILIANS ARE DEAD IN IRAQ, BECAUSE OF THE USA, WHO LIED ABOUT WMD, DEMOCRACY PROMOTION, WHILE OIL CORPORATIONS, MERCENARY ARMIES AND BUSH AND THEIR FRIENDS PROFITED. WAR CRIMINALS! USA=WAR CRIMES.
November 14th, 2007 at 9:44 pmBush may not have asked America to sacrifice, but he thinks we have.
From an interview with Brian Williams, 8/29/06:
WILLIAMS: The folks who say you should have asked for some sort of sacrifice from all of us after 9/11, do they have a case looking back on it?
BUSH: Americans are sacrificing. I mean, we are. You know, we pay a lot of taxes. America sacrificed when they, you know, when the economy went into the tank. Americans sacrificed when, you know, air travel was disrupted. American taxpayers have paid a lot to help this nation recover. I think Americans have sacrificed.
Link.
November 14th, 2007 at 9:45 pmUnfortunately for the Shrub, reality has an intellectual bias.
November 14th, 2007 at 10:30 pmI find it odd that the neocon mantra is to shout at how taxes are bad and the America does best when his money is in his own pocket and not paid for taxes, etc. etc.
But then, obliviously takes this action which raises gas prices (effectively a tax on the american public in everything from transportation to plastics to agriculture higher prices), and gives each family a debt of $ 20 K
November 14th, 2007 at 10:30 pmMerlin,
it sounds like a quote from 1984!
November 15th, 2007 at 12:43 amPerino said she’s “not worried about the number.â€
Of course she's not worried. The incoming Democratic administration will inherit the mammoth debt and worthless dollar given them by aWol.
November 15th, 2007 at 6:26 amthank god we're taking bigfwats advice and not letting accountants run this war...
November 15th, 2007 at 7:31 am60 billion in interest payments, to who? who benifits for years and years to come from interest payments like these?
these wars are quit an investment for whoever underwrites these fiasco's of death.
November 15th, 2007 at 8:55 amOct. 24, 2007 - Dana Perino - ($2 trillion war cost) "I'm not worried about the number."
January 5, 2007 - Tony Snow (milestone of 2500 dead American troops due to Iraq War) - "It's a number."
What IS real to these people?
November 15th, 2007 at 9:08 am"A senior adviser to Bush told this to Suskind. …guys like me were â€in what we call the reality-based community,†which he defined as people who â€believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.†I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. â€That’s not the way the world really works anymore,†he continued. â€We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.â€
- Ron Suskind “Without a Doubtâ€
Any guesses who this "senior advisor" was? Suskind never revealed that.
November 15th, 2007 at 9:09 amBush said at first this is going to cost us alot of money, time and respect. I love this report "Iraq and Afghanistan at $1.6 trillion". I'm sorry but these idiots cant tell you what is going to happen. DEM. Lazy, lazy cry babys why the report now just to start sh!t. I want a report on all the little projects they have in there state. REP. greedy , same as the DEM. Where is all the money really, I want to know! They dont know people get to a level an think its ok my asst. will handle it. I have noticed the Asst. are stealing money and putting money in the freezer. (REP) I will tell you about the DEM. later. :)
November 15th, 2007 at 10:30 amDEM. they did three things when they came in. Raise the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour, maybe in one step. Cut the interest rate on student loans in half. Allow the government to negotiate directly with the pharmaceutical companies for lower drug prices for Medicare patients.
November 15th, 2007 at 11:10 amBroaden the types of stem cell research allowed with federal funds. Sorry #4 cry about everyone pushing them around. where have they gone all you see is crying about Bush, stop crying about Bush do something to show us your still trying. One thing dont stop the money to are troops without them all of us get to go fight. (truth). Sorry this is all about the spending on the war and a report that came out this week. I heard that and first thought was REP. have to say something about the report then the money then ............. STOP the sh!t the people are smarter now and they see you! U-TUBE shows alot but again money control that too.