The Economy: Doing the Math

[shannon_a]

Late this year the White House fired Lawrence B. Lindsey, their Chief Economic Advisor. Why? Mainly because he said a war against Iraq would cost too much money. His estimate was $100 billion to $200 billion dollars, a fairly sensical number given that (1) the last war with Iraq, which lasted only 43 days, cost $80 billion dollars in 2002 adjusted money, and (2) our allies in the Gulf paid most of the cost of that war.

But, with the economy going in the tank, Bush jr. wasn't too pleased with the numbers, so he fired Lindsey and hired a yes-man who would give him the right numbers. Today, yes-man Mitchell E. Daniels jr. offered the figure $50-60 billion dollars for an Iraq war, remarkably 25-30% less than the cost of the last one, despite the fact that our allies in the Gulf aren't willing to pay the costs this time.

But, they're the sort of numbers Bush jr. needs to pull the wool over the eyes of the American public.

Here's some of the real math behind Bush's fucked up economics:

• $159 billion dollar federal deficit, 2002
  
• $100-200 billion dollars planned for war with Iraq, 2003
  
• $30 billion/year from proposed dividend tax cut, 2003+
  

For the record, $100 billion dollars is about 1% of the GNP, so we're talking about 1.5% deficit in 2002, rising as high as 4% in 2003.

The deficit is, of course, thanks to Bush's major tax cuts for the rich right at a time when the economy was already headed down. And, we can stack the costs of the war with Afghanistan on top of that. So, with that one hundred and fifty billion looming, of course it makes sense to offer more tax cuts for the rich and start another war without justification.

Or, at least it does if you're already rich and a member of the military cartel, and what do you know, our "president" is.

Sources:

White House Cuts Estimate of Cost for War

White House Pushes for 50% Cut in Divident Tax