Eric,
We cannot accurately state that spending money for the war in Iraq is hurting our economy. Although the actual dollar amount of our current deficit is a record number; our income has gone up so much that the actual percentage of our GDP has dropped.
In the 80’s the deficit was 6.0% of our GDP.
In the 90’s the deficit was 4.7% of our GDP.
In 2006 it is ……………. 3.6 % of the GDP.
The United States is in a 12 trillion dollar economy, unemployment rate has dropped to 4.9%. Don’t you think it is rather mismanagement of funds that is the real problem and not that our money is wasted on defense spending? I am not, with this question, concerned with the moral question of whether or not we should be at war but rather questioning the legitimacy of blaming defense spending for future economic difficulty.
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/us.html#Econ
Shari Wible, Anaheim CA
Dear Shari,
In 1946 they changed the name of the War Dept., to the Defense Dept. Ever since we've been fighting quasi-wars for vague purposes. While we certainly disagree about the extent the US frees the world for Democracy, it is hard to imagine how the next few generations will deal with a 9 trillion dollar debt.
Economists are kind of like professional witnesses, they'll say anything you pay them to. At some point debt service or the actual debt will catch up to us. War and occupation does not create positive wealth. It is destructive and invasive. When 'progressives', or as you might refer to them 'liberals', ask me about social spending, I explain that stopping military spending would offer us the luxury to debate about domestic spending.
Somewhere along the line 'war hawks' and social spenders made a deal with the proverbial devil. Deficits and debt were the answer. Each got what they wanted at the expense of future generations. The solution is not with either major party. They will continue to tax and spend. We must stop looking at things in terms of the black and white labels of conservative and liberal.
Sincerely,
Eric
Comments (1)
Shari:
Good points - I'd have check your figures (thanks for the link) - but the $$$$ spent on this war, and the resulting occupation, will raise my taxes and adversely affect my quality of life by not being able to be spent elsewhere. Lets ask the people of the Gulf Coast if they could use an additional 96 billion dollars.
Posted by gm | March 27, 2006 11:59 AM
Posted on March 27, 2006 11:59