Monday, October 22, 2007
Fuzzy math
George Bush wants yet another $46 billion for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which brings the total requested for the budget year that started Oct. 1 to $196.4 billion. And from this, AP concludes that "military operations [are] running about $10 billion a month." The last I checked, $196.4/12 was $16.4 billion a month, not $10 billion. Or perhaps military operations really are running $10 billion a month, and Bush is socking away the extra $6.4 billion/month to spend should a miracle ever occur and Congress ever refuse to appropriate more money.
But hey, what's $6.4 billion a month between friends? I'm sure none of us can think of anything better to do with the money.
This is, of course, yet another difference between Republicans and Democrats. Republicans will claim the money is needed to "win the war on terror." Democrats will claim we need to spend $16.4 billion a month because "we can't abandon the troops while they're in the line of fire." No doubt the dead troops and the dead Iraqis are most appreciative of that difference.
