A tale of two headlines--Bush vetoes $10 billion health and education bill, War in Iraq will cost U.S. taxpayers more than $1.5 trillion

I saw these two stories yesterday, but I was unable to comment on them here. The first story is an ABC News story, titled Bush Wields Veto Pen _ Again:

President Bush, escalating his budget battle with Congress, on Tuesday vetoed a spending measure for health and education programs prized by congressional Democrats.

He also signed a big increase in the Pentagon's non-war budget although the White House complained it contained "some unnecessary spending."

[....]

Since winning re-election, Bush has sought to cut the labor, health and education measure below the prior year level. But lawmakers have rejected the cuts. The budget that Bush presented in February sought almost $4 billion in cuts to this year's bill.

Democrats responded by adding $10 billion to Bush's request for the 2008 bill. Democrats say spending increases for domestic programs are small compared with Bush's pending war request totaling almost $200 billion.

[....]

The $471 billion defense budget gives the Pentagon a 9 percent, $40 billion budget increase. The measure only funds core department operations, omitting Bush's $196 billion request for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, except for an almost $12 billion infusion for new troop vehicles that are resistant to roadside bombs.

So President Bush vetoes a $10 billion, bipartisan, health and education bill, while at the same time asks for a $40 billion budget increase for the Pentagon. And that doesn't even include the $196 billion supplemental funding for the wars. This really shows President Bush's priorities--kill more Iraqis over providing health and education to American children.

Now let's go to the second story I found in The Washington Post, titled 'Hidden Costs' Double Price Of Two Wars, Democrats Say:

The economic costs to the United States of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan so far total approximately $1.5 trillion, according to a new study by congressional Democrats that estimates the conflicts' "hidden costs"-- including higher oil prices, the expense of treating wounded veterans and interest payments on the money borrowed to pay for the wars.

Graph showing the total costs of the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan now at $1.5 trillion dollars. From The Washington Post.


That amount is nearly double the $804 billion the White House has spent or requested to wage these wars through 2008, according to the Democratic staff of Congress's Joint Economic Committee. Its report, titled "The Hidden Costs of the Iraq War," estimates that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have thus far cost the average U.S. family of four more than $20,000.

"The full economic costs of the war to the American taxpayers and the overall U.S. economy go well beyond even the immense federal budget costs already reported," said the 21-page draft report, obtained yesterday by The Washington Post.

The report argues that war funding is diverting billions of dollars away from "productive investment" by American businesses in the United States. It also says that the conflicts are pulling reservists and National Guardsmen away from their jobs, resulting in economic disruptions for U.S. employers that the report estimates at $1 billion to $2 billion.

The economic costs of the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan total approximately $1.5 trillion dollars. This Bush administration has wasted so much of American taxpayer's money--$1.5 trillion that could have been spent in providing better health, education, or even improving our nation's crumbling infrastructure. That will now never happen, not since Bush has increased our national debt by almost $4 trillion dollars, due to the war costs, and his tax cuts to the uber-rich. This is another example of how President Bush and the Republican Party has completely screwed this country.