Our Children Will Pay

With today's Telegram & Gazette (Wednesday, August 6) comes this article written by James Glanz and Campbell Robertson of The New York Times, "Study shows Iraq has surplus billions in the bank". According to Glanz & Robertson, while the U.S. continues to pay out dollar after dollar for reconstruction ($48 billion since the start of the war), the Iraqi government has squirreled away billions of dollars which sit in the Federal Reserve Bank in New York City and collect interest. The amount is so large that as of December 31, 2007, the Iraqi government had received $435.6 million in interest. The authors begin their article by stating Iraqis should have a $79 billion budget surplus this year. Glanz & Robertson go on to compare dollars spent by America versus Iraq. For utilities and security, the U.S. has spent $23.2 billion. On the same items, Iraq has spent $3.9 billion. Senators Carl Levin, a Democrat from Michigan and John Warner, a Republican from Virginia, were the catalysts for obtaining a report about U.S. spending in Iraq from the Government Accountability Office. Warner & Levin issued the following statement. "The Iraqi government now has tens of billions of dollars at its disposal to fund large-scale projects. It is inexcusable for U.S. taxpayers to continue to foot the bill for projects the Iraqis are fully capable of funding themselves. We should not be paying for Iraqi projects, while Iraqi oil revenues continue to pile up in the bank."

Robertson & Glanz state that Joseph A. Christoff from the Government Accountability Office said that Iraq does not have people who could adequately write contracts. However Christoff also adds that because the U.S. is so involved, the incentive to accomplish this work and to pay for it could be lacking. Why is the American taxpayer continuing to pay for Iraqi reconstruction considering ". . . the Government Accountability Office estimates Iraqi oil revenue from 2005 through the end of this year will amount to at least $156 billion"? Why are we allowing our government to pass a huge budget deficit on to our children?

To read Glanz & Robertson's complete article, go to http://www.telegram.com/article/20080806/NEWS/808060679/1116/NEWSREWIND