Today, ThinkProgress attended a briefing with Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI), at which he said that the war in Iraq is “eviscerating our economy and our military”:
FEINGOLD: The way I measured this is when I did these twenty-two listening sessions, this year. I went out to these counties, very conservative counties mostly. [...] So, I purposefully don’t mention Iraq. I think at every single listening session several people got up and said, “When are you going to get the troops home?” I would say to them I purposefully didn’t bring this up. So, I think it’s a complete misreading. People know that this is eviscerating our economy and our military. [...]
Q: Do you think the war is eviscerating the economy?
FEINGOLD: Oh, I think it has a huge impact. You talk about the resources, the ability to do things, programs that are actually stimulative to the economy. Everything is on the ropes. … You never want it to be the only argument, but it is accurate, I think. And I think, you know, it’s where the priorities are. Clearly it’s not. Twelve billion a month would be helpful to do some kind of stimulus.
UPDATE: Politico has more:
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) made a connection between the war and foreign companies buying large stakes in American companies.
You can’t borrow all the money for the war in Iraq from China and not have consequences. It costs $12 billion a month. Obviously it has weakened us economically, allowing this to happen,” she said.
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