Comparing the cost of war and domestic expenses

By Congressman John Murtha

THIS IS SIMPLY AMAZING FROM THE NUMBERS STAND POINT, BUT WHY WON'T CONGRESSMAN AND WAR VET MURTHA STAND UP THEN AND SPEAK OUT AGAINST THE WAR, NOT JUST BRING THEM HOME. WHAT ABOUT THE ILLEGALITY OF THE WAR AND ALL THE INTERNATIONAL LAWS BROKEN. IF CONGRESS WOULD STAND UP AND DO THEIR JOB AND STOP REPRESENTING BIG CORPORTATIONS AND STAND UP TO THE PRESIDENT AND STOP BEING "YES SIR PEOPLE" THEN MAYBE 2500 TROOPS WOULD NOT BE DEAD AND THE COUNTRY WOULD NOT BE BANKRUPT!!!!! GO LEAD A ANTI IRAQ WAR MARCH AND TRUTH MOVEMENT MURTHA, THEN COME BACK AND TALK ABOUT THE PRESIDENT.

07/13/06 --Information Clearing House - (Washington D.C.)- We are spending $8 billion a month in Iraq. That equates to $2 billion a week, or $267 million a day, or $11 million an hour.

The following are some comparisons between what we are spending in Iraq as we "stay the course" indefinitely and what those funds could be used for instead.

I've been fighting for our military to get out of Iraq because I'm concerned about the loss of our troops and the future of our military, and also because I believe they have accomplished their mission there and the Iraqis must resolve their internal conflict themselves. However, I also wanted to demonstrate what these expenses mean to domestic policy in the United States and give you an idea of just some of the things that we could accomplish with this amount of money.

NATIONAL SECURITY



$31.7 billion/yr : Department of Homeland Security FY 07 budget
(4 months in Iraq)



$10 billion (1-time) : Equipping commercial airliners with defenses against shoulder-fired missiles
(5 weeks in Iraq)



$8.6 billion/7 years : Shortage of international aid needed to rebuild Afghanistan
(one month in Iraq)



$5.2 billion (1-time) Estimated need for capital improvements to secure public transportation system (trains, subways, buses)
(3 weeks in Iraq)



$1.5 billion/year : Radiation detectors needed at all US ports (rejected due to cost)
(5 days in Iraq)



$1.4 billion/ year : Double the COPS (community police grants) program
(5 days in Iraq)



$800 million/year Public transportation personnel training and technical support
(72 hours in Iraq)



$700 million/year 100% screening of all air cargo - rejected because of cost (1/4 of domestic shipping and 1/2 of international shipping is done on passenger planes)
(2 days in Iraq)



$350 million (1-time) : Make emergency radio systems interoperable (5 years after 9/11, this hasn't happened yet)
(1.2 days in Iraq)



$500 million/year : Double the firefighters’ grant program
(2 days in Iraq)



$94 million/year : Restore cuts to cities hit on 9/11 in Homeland Security budget
(8-1/2 hours in Iraq)



HEALTH CARE/VETERANS



$36 billion/5 years : reduction for Medicare spending in president's fiscal year 2007 (FY 07) budget
(4-1/2 months in Iraq)



$5 billion/5 years : Cut in Medicaid in President's FY 2007 budget
(2-1/2 weeks in Iraq)



$2.5 billion/5 years : VA health care premium increases in this year's budget. Premiums will double or triple and drug co-payments will increase, costing our military retirees $2.4 billion over 5 years
(9 days in Iraq)





$100 million : Additional funding recommended for mental health research for veterans
(9 hours in Iraq)



$48 million : Medical and prosthetic research for veterans
(half a day in Iraq)



$65 million/yr : National Institutes of Health research funding cuts in this year's budget (scientists are leaving the field of health research because funding has been cut so severely)
(6 hours in Iraq)


$15 billion/yr : Provide health insurance to 9 million children with no health insurance
(1-1/2 weeks in Iraq)



$118 million/yr : The Commodity Supplemental Food Program, which provides nutritional food packages for less than $20 a month to more than 400,000 elderly people - eliminated in the president's budget
(12 hours in Iraq)



EDUCATION



$3.4 billion/yr : Cut in education budget in president's FY 07 budget from FY 06 funding level (over 40 programs including drug-free schools, federal support for the arts, technology and parent-resource centers.
(13 days in Iraq)





$664 million/yr : Perkins Loan program cut in president's FY 07 budget (would help 463,000 low-income students attend college)
(2-1/2 days in Iraq)



$99 million/yr : Even Start (eliminated in president's budget)
(9 hours in Iraq)



ENVIRONMENT/INFRASTRUCTURE



Nationally



$300 million : President's cut to Environmental Protection Agency budget in FY 2007
(1 day, 3 hours in Iraq)



$253 billion/30 years : Clean up contaminated sites in U.S. (Up to 350,000 contaminated sites will require cleanup over the next 30 years according to a report released by the EPA.)
(2 years in Iraq)



$9.11 billion : National Park Service maintenance backlog
(1 month, 10 days in Iraq)



$6 billion : Forest Service backlog
(3 weeks in Iraq)



$2 billion : Fish and Wildlife Service backlog
(2 weeks in Iraq)



$47.2 billion/yr : Miscellaneous user fees throughout government imposed on taxpayers by president’s budget
(6 months in Iraq)



$1.7 billion/yr : Grants to states cut in 2007 budget
(1 week in Iraq)



Pennsylvania



$15 billion : Fixing Pennsylvania's acid mine drainage sites
(2 months in Iraq)



$8 billion : Pennsylvania's wastewater infrastructure needs
(1 month in Iraq)



$642 million : Rehabilitation cost for Pennsylvania's most critical dams
(2 days in Iraq)



$2.3 billion : Pennsylvania's maintenance backlog for roads
(8 days in Iraq)



$8 billion : Pennsylvania's maintenance backlog for bridges
(1 month in Iraq)



$5.26 billion : Pennsylvania's drinking water infrastructure needs
(2-1/2 weeks in Iraq)



Southwestern Pennsylvania



$10 billion : Repair southwestern Pennsylvania's existing sewer systems to reduce overflows and back-ups, bring clean water and effective wastewater treatment to areas that lack them, and install water and sewer infrastructure at targeted development sites.
(5 weeks in Iraq)