National Priorities Project
Total Cost of Wars Since 2001
$1,128,072,000,000
Cost of War in Iraq
$748,359,000,000
Cost of War in Afghanistan
$379,712,000,000
(that's 1.1 Trillion Dollars, all told -- to date.)
for a real time counter, of this most costly reason for our National Debt problem, check out:
costofwar.com
Kind of makes your head spin -- round and round it goes ...
where it will stop, nobody knows ...
The costs of War are many. The loss of life. The loss of opportunity. The loss of time. The loss of health. The loss of potential. The loss of investments in our own nation, in our own citizens.
The ironic thing is -- with all its many costs, War is rarely targeted by the Media and Politicians, as something that has put us in our current National Debt situation. War is Expensive. War has put us in Debt (along with the Banks.)
Critical thinking about this Too Damn High expense, is rarely addressed; could be War is something, in need of some serious "belt-tightening" too ...
Cost of war
Jeanne LaRocco, Posted December 7, 2010
We were constantly barraged with politicians and pundits complaining about runaway federal spending. Yet, I do not hear anyone talking about the cost of war. In addition to the loss of life, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are draining our budget more than the cost of healthcare and social services.
The U.S. has spent more than $1 trillion on operational in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2011, these wars are projected to cost taxpayers another $159 billion.
According to Mary Zerkel, an organizer with the American Friends Service Committee,
"Instead of $1 trillion for war, we could have spent that money to roll out a WPA-style program and hired the 15.3 million people out of work for $50,000 apiece. Even then, we’d still have $235 billion left over."
Instead of investing in people, the powers that be ... the powers that fund war, above all else -- would rather look for Deficit gremlins, in other more open and vulnerable corners of the Economy.
The corners where Seniors, and the Disabled, and the unfortunate broken family survivors, reside ...
"Tweaks" Can Fix $5.3T Social Security Shortfall
cbsnews -- May 18, 2010
The entire $5.3 trillion shortfall over the next 75 years would be wiped out if payroll taxes were increased by 1.1 percentage points for both workers and employers. It would also disappear if Congress started taxing all wages, not just those below $106,800, said the Senate report, citing projections by the actuaries at the Social Security Administration.
The Social Security trust funds have built up a $2.5 trillion surplus over the past 25 years. But the federal government has borrowed that money over the years to spend on other programs. The government must now start borrowing money from public debt markets - adding to annual budget deficits - to repay Social Security.
If accurate, that reported shortfall amounts to about 70 Billion per year on average.
What we spent on Wars since 2001, would have paid for more that 15 years of the 75 year projected shortfall.
The really ironic thing is -- what that Extension of the Bush Tax Cuts to the Top 2%, would have paid for, if it too were not held for ransom, in exchange for the promise of "granting security" to the lucky few now:
Social Security and the Deficit
Social Security is not part of the federal deficit: Even with no policy changes, it will be in balance for the next 26 years.
Nancy Altman and Eric Kingson, American Prospect -- October 11, 2010
The latest report, released Aug. 5, states that Social Security ran a surplus of $122 billion last year and had accumulated a reserve of $2.54 trillion, which will grow to $4.2 trillion by 2024. For the entire 75-year valuation period, the actuaries project that Social Security will most likely face a shortfall of just 0.6 percent of gross domestic product, about the same as extending the Bush tax cuts for the top 2 percent of the income scale.
With no congressional action whatsoever, Social Security can pay all benefits on time and in full until 2037 and at least three-quarters [75%] of scheduled benefits through 2084, the full 75-year valuation period.
[...]
A number of such proposals exist, but cutting benefits is not among them. Social Security's benefits are modest, averaging less than $13,000 a year, but are vitally important to almost all who receive them. Two-thirds of the elderly receive half or more of their income from Social Security. About 6.5 million children, nearly 9 percent of the nation's children, receive Social Security themselves or live in households supported by another Social Security beneficiary. About 8 million disabled workers receive benefits, without which more than half would have incomes below the poverty line.
The dreaded Social Security Shortfall, is almost 2 decades away ... and that shortfall, (25% of Benefits then) in reality falls way, way SHORT of all the Austerity hype that it has been given.
While the Costs of Wars are piling up NOW.
The Wars that put us into the debt situation were in Now -- those TOO DAMN HIGH Costly Wars, which don't hardly get an Austerity-Hype word, in edgewise, now.
America sure knows how to pick a fight huh? We just don't know how to finish one.
Without a clear Exit Strategy, how do we even know when we have won?
Maybe after the money's all gone?
... maybe after we turn our once thriving Middle Class, into just another 3rd world war zone, full of desperate refugees ... without hope ... without opportunity ...
without a future ... and without REAL Security.
Maybe WE will have WON then?
The Question then, would be, WON What?
and at what ultimate Cost?