Thousands of vets are returning from Iraq by yearend. They are coming home from a war that we declined to pay for, from 2003 to now. For the fight in Afghanistan, the financial neglect extends back to 2001.
Two wars: one and one-half Trillion $ .
Not only did we not pay for the war contemporaneously, we went further. We cut taxes, twice, for about $ 2 trillion. This set us on the path, by 2008, for debt of upwards of $4 trillion (with newly enacted medicare drug benefit, also unpaid for).
Now the vets return to a Congress, and supercommittee, bent on undoing safety net entitlements for their retirement, and for other Americans -- to recoup perhaps $4 trillion (a grand bargain, as it is called), or more realistically, $1 trillion, if they wimp out as expected.
Here's an irony. In the sunset days of the Bill Clinton White House, a 2000 report was circulating in the White House called "Life After Debt." It was deemed too sensitive for release to the public and to financial market players because of the projection that by 2012 there would no Treasury bonds to float and sell to the market — a palpable fear of "the possible demise of the Treasury market." NPR's Planet Money covered this, and linked to the draft document (pdf: Treasury - WH draft memo )
The fear they thought they would face was here:
What we face now is here:
(see the NPR report)
The current situation and impasse was launched by 2 wars – and a fear of taxing, then under Bush, and now, by Boehner and McConnell and their appointed reps.
The GOP envoys to the supercomm want the onus for the budget gap to fall on the next generation. Social Security retirement age, Medicare, etc. Perhaps it's time for them to face their fear of taxing.
The bill for the war is overdue.