Thursday, May 25, 2017

So What Did We Get for Our Almost 5 Trillion Dollars

"The United States federal government has spent or obligated 4.8 trillion dollars on the wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq. This figure includes: direct Congressional war appropriations; war-related increases to the Pentagon base budget; veterans care and disability; increases in the homeland security budget; interest payments on direct war borrowing; foreign assistance spending; and estimated future obligations for veterans’ care.

This total omits many other expenses, such as the macroeconomic costs to the US economy; the opportunity costs of not investing war dollars in alternative sectors; future interest on war borrowing; and local government and private war costs.

The current wars have been paid for almost entirely by borrowing. This borrowing has raised the US budget deficit, increased the national debt, and had other macroeconomic effects, such as raising consumer interest rates. Unless the US immediately repays the money borrowed for war, there will also be future interest payments. We estimate that interest payments could total over $7.9 trillion by 2053."

Remember BOTH parties continued with these wars and Trump has no intention of stopping, so why the leaders of this country are busy scapegoating the disabled, poor and elderly as "costing all the money" as Republicans especially cry crocodile tears about the national debt, don't forget this statistic, 5 trillion dollars, and how much more will be spent?

No comments:

Post a Comment