{"id":316,"date":"2003-02-26T11:46:37","date_gmt":"2003-02-26T16:46:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/316.html"},"modified":"2003-02-26T11:46:37","modified_gmt":"2003-02-26T16:46:37","slug":"maybe-they-shouldnt-have-laughed-at-larry-lindsey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/maybe-they-shouldnt-have-laughed-at-larry-lindsey\/","title":{"rendered":"Maybe they shouldn’t have laughed at Larry Lindsey"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pentagon officials are acknowledging publicly that the combat phase of war in Iraq could cost $95 billion<\/a>, and that doesn’t include the costs of occupying Iraq indefinitely after the war is over, nor the costs of rebuilding Iraq’s infrastructure so the country doesn’t implode after we’re done dropping bombs on it. (Oh, and it also doesn’t include the costs of the various bribes the U.S. is paying out to countries in exchange for their political support for our invasion. But I digress…)<\/p>\n

Carpetbagger can’t help but laugh about the fact that Lawrence Lindsey, the president’s former economic adviser, was hung out to dry by his “friends” in the West Wing for admitting that the war would cost between $100 billion and $200 billion. The admission actually played a part in his dismissal.<\/p>\n

The price tag isn’t what’s getting me worked up. Wars cost a great deal, not only the lives they take, but in the financial burdens placed on the countries involved.<\/p>\n

No, the troubling part isn’t the cost of the war, it’s the fact that the administration knew the war was coming, knew roughly what it would cost, and didn’t add a penny in the recently unveiled budget for the war. The budget already forecasts the largest deficit in the history of the country. Now the war will add over $100 billion more to the deficit, plus a new round of tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires.<\/p>\n

Bush is seeking to be the first president in U.S. history to cut taxes and wage a war simultaneously<\/a>. The fiscal irresponsibility on display is nothing short of breathtaking. Usually, when you fall in a hole, the first rule is “stop digging.” This administration has fallen in a crater of its own making, and it’s looking for a bigger shovel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pentagon officials are acknowledging publicly that the combat phase of war in Iraq could cost $95 billion, and that doesn’t include the costs of occupying Iraq indefinitely after the war is over, nor the costs of rebuilding Iraq’s infrastructure so the country doesn’t implode after we’re done dropping bombs on it. (Oh, and it also […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}