The following
article appeared on TomPaine.com,
September 11.
What
Can $87 Billion Buy?
The
Center
for American Progress is a nonpartisan research and educational
institute based in Washington, D.C.
On
September 7th, President Bush asked Congress for an additional
$87 billion for the war in Iraq, acknowledging that the engagement
in Iraq is going to cost many hundreds of billions of dollars.
This was a surprise considering that prior to the war, the administration
dismissed such estimates, and even fired its top economic adviser,
Lawrence Lindsey, for suggesting those estimates were correct.
To get some perspective, here are some real-life comparisons about
what $87 billion means.
$87b
Is More Than The Combined Total Of All State Budget Deficits In
The United States
The
Bush administration proposed absolutely zero funds to help states
deal with these deficits, despite the fact that their tax cuts
drove down state revenues. [Source: Center
on Budget and Policy Priorities]
$87b
Is Roughly The Total Of Two Years Worth Of All U.S. Unemployment
Benefits
The
U.S. spends about $50 billion a year on unemployment insurance.
At least 1.1 million people have exhausted all of their unemployment
benefits without finding a job, and yet Congress has refused to
extend benefits. [Source: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities]
$87b
Is Enough To Pay The 3.3 Million People Who Have Lost Jobs $26,363
Each
The
unemployment benefits extension passed by Congress at the beginning
of this year provides zero benefits to "workers who exhausted
their regular, state unemployment benefits and cannot find work."
All told, two thirds of unemployed workers have exhausted their
benefits. [Source: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities]
$87b
Is More Than Double The Total Amount The Government Spends On
Homeland Security
The
U.S. spends about $36 billion on homeland security. Yet, Sen.
Warren Rudman (R-N.H.) wrote "America will fall approximately
$98.4 billion short of meeting critical emergency responder needs"
for homeland security without a funding increase. [Source: Council
on Foreign Relations]
$87b
Is 7 Times What The Government Spends On Title I For Low-Income
Schools
President
Bush proposed a budget of just $12 billion for Title I, leaving
a $6.2 billion hole in what he promised to spend on Title I in
his No Child Left Behind Bill. [Source: House Appropriations Committee]
$87b
Is 87 Times The Amount The Federal Government Spends On After
School Programs
President
Bush proposed a budget that reduces the $1 billion for after-school
programs to $600 million – cutting off about 475,000 children
from the program. [Source: House Appropriations Committee]
$87b
Is About 9 Times What The Federal Government Spends On Special
Education
Legislation
authorizes the federal government to pay 40 percent of the cost
of special education, but because of budget shortfalls, it only
pays roughly 18 percent (or $9.9 billion), driving up local property
taxes. [Source: House Appropriations Committee]
$87b
Is More Than 10 Times What The Government Spends On All Environmental
Protection
The
Bush administration requested just $7.6 billion for the entire
Environmental Protection Agency. This included a 32 percent cut
to water quality grants, a 6 percent reduction in enforcement
staff, and a 50 percent cut to land acquisition and conservation.
[Source: Natural
Resources Defense Council]
$87b
Is 8 Times The Total For Pell Grants -- The Major College Program
In The U.S.
In
1975, when the Pell Grant program was established, it financed
about 84 percent of the cost of attending a four-year public college.
Today, that share is down to about 40 percent, and under Congress’s
current proposal to freeze Pell Grant funding at about $10 billion,
it would drop to 38 percent. [Source: House Appropriations Committee]
$87b
Is Enough To Give Every Man, Woman And Child In America $300
"[We]
want to control spending. And I hope Congress lives up to their
words. When they talk about deficits, they can join us in making
sure we don't overspend. They can join us and make sure that [they
are] focused those items that are absolutely necessary to the
American people." - President Bush, Jan. 6, 2003
-0-
On
December 1, 2002, the front page of the Washington Post announced:
“U.S.
Facing Bigger Bill for Iraq War: Total Cost Could Run as High
as $200 Billion.” Four days later, The Black Commentator published
our own budgetary exercise in the Cover Story, “Rule of the Pirates:
The $200 Billion Payday.”
Here's
what $200 billion represents:
The entire
2001 cost of what is generally called welfare, including Temporary
Assistance to Needy Families, the Welfare to Work program, and
food stamps: $38.8 billion. Plus,
all federal
spending on education in 1999 - 2000: $55 billion. Plus,
the entire
2002 budget of the Department of Housing and Urban Development:
$30.4 billion. Plus,
the entire
2000 - 2001 budget of the Department of Labor: $34. 2 billion.
Plus,
the value
of all U.S. agricultural exports to the world in fiscal 2000:
$50.9 billion.
Total:
$209.3 billion, a little bit over the projected cost of war and
occupation of one country; but then, overruns can be predicted.
is published every Thursday. 