Where have all the flowers gone?
Let’s recap the series of events for the viewing audience:
* Clinton left the country with its first budget surplus in 40 years
* Bush gave that surplus to his rich friends, promising to leave future generations to foot the bill. It will take OUR taxes and someone else’s fiscal discipline to pay down this debt.
* Bush started a war, funded with OUR taxes.
* Bush’s friends profit from the war, paid for by US.
* Bush’s friends profit from the rebuilding after the war, paid for by US.
* Bush’s friends will profit from the oil business coming from Iraq after the rebuilding.
The budget surplus goes to the rich. Deficits benefit the rich. War benefits the rich. Rebuilding benefits the rich. Oil revenues benefit the rich.
The occupation of Iraq is costing US taxpayers nearly $4 BILLION PER MONTH. Total cost to the US for war and occupation = $100 BILLION and the federal deficit is nearing $500 BILLION.
Here’s what Clinton left us:
Instead of a $455 billion deficit, the surplus that year was $230 billion.
Here’s what Bush is leaving us:
Record federal deficit of $304 billion, NOT COUNTING the extra $87 billion.
The $1.3 trillion tax giveaway to the wealthy accounted for over two-fifths of the lost surplus, according to a CBO report.
Most of the not-yet-in-effect tax cuts would benefit the nation's wealthy households by trimming their marginal income tax rates and by reducing, and over time ending, taxes on estates.
Who benefits from the war:
The Carlyle Group stands to make huge profits from the war in Iraq.
Halliburton
Cheney claimed to have cut ties with the company, and had nothing to do with a large no-bid contract for oil reconstruction work in Iraq. He was still receiving large deferred salary payments and continues to hold 433,333 unexercised Halliburton stock options.
Other Facts:
* George Bush Sr. is a former director of Halliburton. He is now one of the directors of The Carlyle Group, one of the largest defense contractors in the world.
* Halliburton has signed contracts and provides services to Chevron.
* The Bush Administrations' National Security Advisor, Condoleeza Rice, was a former director of Chevron and held a quarter of a million shares of Chevron stock. She even had a tanker named after her before being appointed by President Bush.
More money, please
President Bush’s $87 billion war spending request to Congress offers new details about the costs of reconstructing Iraq and is drawing criticism from Democrats that the White House is willing to spend more on Iraqis than on U.S. citizens.
Of the president's request, nearly $5.8 billion would go toward rebuilding Iraq's electricity system, $2.1 billion is earmarked for its oil infrastructure, $3.7 billion for water and sewer building, $800 million for telecommunications and transportation improvements, and $900 million to upgrade hospitals and health care.
U.S. taxpayers will construct two prisons in Iraq, build houses and finance the importation of $900 million worth of fuel to a country with the world's second-largest oil reserves.
”In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. “ President Eisenhower, 1961