thedrifter
12-26-06, 07:02 AM
Posted on Tue, Dec. 26, 2006
The deficit and the war
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
(MCT)
The following editorial appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer on Friday, Dec. 22:
The longer the war in Iraq drags on, the more likely it is that Congress will finally decide to do what it should have done from the day the U.S. military invaded - raise taxes to pay for it.
Most of the public's attention on the war is understandably focused on the human cost - nearly 3,000 U.S. soldiers and Marines dead, more than 22,000 wounded, many thousands more Iraqis dead. Many families, in the United States and in Iraq, will never be the same.
The war also carries a financial cost, which increasingly burdens an unstable federal budget. Last year the war in Iraq cost U.S. taxpayers about $120 billion; the price for the current fiscal year is expected to top $170 billion.
Since Sept. 11, 2001, U.S. military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere have cost more than $500 billion. The Bush administration will ask Congress to spend an additional $100 billion or so on Iraq early next year, bringing that total to $600 billion. The financial cost of the Vietnam War, adjusted for inflation, was $549 billion.
If U.S. troops remain in Iraq through 2010, the overall cost could reach $1 trillion.
In addition to the expense of paying for troops in the field, the Iraq war is adding other long-term costs to the national budget. The strain on the Army and Marine Corps has persuaded the president to build up those services with additional permanent troops, as many as 70,000 more active-duty military personnel. The cost of 10,000 additional soldiers is about $1.2 billion per year.
These expenses are being piled onto a budget that was already in deep trouble. The deficit for fiscal year 2006 was $248 billion. And deficits are projected to remain high, averaging $350 billion over the next 10 years, if Congress extends the Bush tax cuts due to expire at the end of 2010.
Something needs to give. Many Democrats in the incoming Congress propose to roll back at least some of the tax cuts of the past six years. They're right. Hiking the marginal income tax rate for the wealthiest taxpayers - those earning $200,000 per year or more - would raise about $800 billion over 10 years. Doing so would rightly require some financial sacrifice from the taxpayers who have enjoyed most of the benefit from the Bush tax cuts. And it would nearly pay for expected growth in the cost of the new Medicare prescription drug benefit over the next decade.
Fully rolling back the income tax cuts for the top 1 percent of households (those earning more than $400,000) would raise about $63 billion for the federal treasury, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington, a left-leaning think tank. That would more than pay for the administration's entire request for homeland security spending in fiscal 2007 - $58 billion.
The time has come for the cost of this war to be borne by more than the relatively small number of families who have sent troops overseas. The war is expensive in many ways, and its financial cost is bringing a day of budget reckoning for the new Congress.
Ellie
The deficit and the war
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
(MCT)
The following editorial appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer on Friday, Dec. 22:
The longer the war in Iraq drags on, the more likely it is that Congress will finally decide to do what it should have done from the day the U.S. military invaded - raise taxes to pay for it.
Most of the public's attention on the war is understandably focused on the human cost - nearly 3,000 U.S. soldiers and Marines dead, more than 22,000 wounded, many thousands more Iraqis dead. Many families, in the United States and in Iraq, will never be the same.
The war also carries a financial cost, which increasingly burdens an unstable federal budget. Last year the war in Iraq cost U.S. taxpayers about $120 billion; the price for the current fiscal year is expected to top $170 billion.
Since Sept. 11, 2001, U.S. military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere have cost more than $500 billion. The Bush administration will ask Congress to spend an additional $100 billion or so on Iraq early next year, bringing that total to $600 billion. The financial cost of the Vietnam War, adjusted for inflation, was $549 billion.
If U.S. troops remain in Iraq through 2010, the overall cost could reach $1 trillion.
In addition to the expense of paying for troops in the field, the Iraq war is adding other long-term costs to the national budget. The strain on the Army and Marine Corps has persuaded the president to build up those services with additional permanent troops, as many as 70,000 more active-duty military personnel. The cost of 10,000 additional soldiers is about $1.2 billion per year.
These expenses are being piled onto a budget that was already in deep trouble. The deficit for fiscal year 2006 was $248 billion. And deficits are projected to remain high, averaging $350 billion over the next 10 years, if Congress extends the Bush tax cuts due to expire at the end of 2010.
Something needs to give. Many Democrats in the incoming Congress propose to roll back at least some of the tax cuts of the past six years. They're right. Hiking the marginal income tax rate for the wealthiest taxpayers - those earning $200,000 per year or more - would raise about $800 billion over 10 years. Doing so would rightly require some financial sacrifice from the taxpayers who have enjoyed most of the benefit from the Bush tax cuts. And it would nearly pay for expected growth in the cost of the new Medicare prescription drug benefit over the next decade.
Fully rolling back the income tax cuts for the top 1 percent of households (those earning more than $400,000) would raise about $63 billion for the federal treasury, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington, a left-leaning think tank. That would more than pay for the administration's entire request for homeland security spending in fiscal 2007 - $58 billion.
The time has come for the cost of this war to be borne by more than the relatively small number of families who have sent troops overseas. The war is expensive in many ways, and its financial cost is bringing a day of budget reckoning for the new Congress.
Ellie