GOP Amnesia: U.S. Wasted Billions Rebuilding Iraq

With the Congressional Republicans whining incessantly about the budget deficit which they try to hang on Barack Obama, they conveniently have amnesia when it comes to the billions of dollars squandered on the Iraq War and the so-called nation building that followed (they also have amnesia on the role that the Bush tax cuts played in exploding the deficit).  Countless needless deaths, waste, corruption and incompetency seem to be the main hallmarks of the Iraq fool's errand launched by Chimperator Bush and Emperor Palpatine Cheney.  An article in Think Progress looks at some of the sums of money that might just as well have been heaped in a pile and set afire for all that they did not accomplish.  Here are some highlights:

As the 10th anniversary of President George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq approaches, the body charged with overseeing Iraq’s reconstruction has issued its final report, capping a tale of spending far too much money for very little results.

Appointed in Oct. 2004, over a year into War in Iraq, the Special Inspector-General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) was charged with being a watchdog over the use of funds provided for rebuilding the Iraqi state after the downfall of Saddam Hussein. Those reconstruction and stabilization efforts wound up costing nearly $60 billion — or about $15 million per day — with up to $10 billion of that amount wasted, according to SIGIR Stuart Bowen.

The examples provided of fraud and abuse of the system are staggering both in number and nature. Among the most telling boondoggles is an $108 million waste-water treatment facility in Fallujah, Iraq that will be completed eight years over schedule. Once finished in 2014, it will only service 9,000 homes and require an additional $87 million from Iraq to provide service to the rest of the buildings in the city.

In terms of outright abuse, Iraqis and Americans alike were culprits, with one former Iraqi Defense Minister’s squandering $1.3 billion.  .  .  .  . former U.S. Army Major John Cockerham was sentenced to 17.5 years in prison for siphoning off millions of dollars from reconstruction projects by accepting bribes from various contractors.

The majority of Bowen’s lessons learned provided to Congress deal extensively with the completely unprepared way in which the United States chose to rebuild Iraq.  Bowen gives seven ways to better perform rebuilding operations in the future.  .  .  . 

Many of those suggestions belie the cavalier attitude struck by Republicans at the beginning of the war in 2003, despite a near complete lack of planning by the Bush administration to provide for rebuilding Iraq. “Each day it gets better,” then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said in May 2003 of the reconstruction efforts. Rumsfeld also insisted that “the bulk of the funds for Iraq’s reconstruction will come from Iraqis” in October of that year. $60 billion later, Iraq has proved to be nowhere near the “cakewalk” predicted by George W. Bush adviser Kenneth Adelman predicted in 2002.

The GOP lies about the real sources of the nation's deficit are brazen to say the least.  The GOP voted for and approved all of the Bush/Cheney disasters that continue to haunt us to this day.  Yet the GOP demagogues now pretend to be the GOP is party of fiscal restraint that will save the country.  Would that they had shown some fiscal restraint and not taken the country to war needlessly a good portion of the nation's debt would not now exist.

The Dictatorship of House Republicans

Right now the biggest threat to America isn't Al Qaeda and would be Islamic terrorists.  Rather, it is the Republican extremists in the House of Representatives who continue to hold the nation hostage and display a continued willingness to harm the lives and finances of a majority of Americans in order to pander to the ugliest elements of the increasingly, racist, religious extremist, and mentally unhinged GOP base.  Sadly, because of the successful gerrymandering of congressional districts in GOP controlled state legislatures like Virginia's it will be difficult to unseat many of these domestic saboteurs for years to come.  An editorial in the New York Times looks at this disturbing threat to democracy and the future of the country.  Here are excerpts:

The only reason that income taxes on 99 percent of Americans did not go up this month was that Speaker John Boehner briefly broke with an iron rule of Republican control over the House. He allowed the fiscal-cliff deal to be put to a full vote of the House even though a strong majority of Republicans opposed it.

[U]nder the majority-of-the-majority rule in the House, Democrats are completely cut out of the governing process, not even given a chance to vote unless Republicans have decided to pass something. Since 2010, there have been enough extremist Republicans in the caucus to block consideration of most of the bills requested by the White House or sent over from the Senate. If President Obama is for something, it’s a safe bet that most House Republicans are against it, and thus won’t bring it up. 

That’s why the House never took a vote on the Senate’s latest five-year farm bill. Or the Violence Against Women Act. Or a full six-year transportation bill. Republican opposition prevented consideration in the last term of the Senate’s $60 billion in providing relief from Hurricane Sandy; so far, the House has been willing to approve only a measly $9.7 billion. . . .

This anti-democratic tactic, now known as the “Hastert rule,” helped turn the chamber into a one-party institution that utterly silenced the minority. A post-9/11 intelligence reform bill, urgently sought by President George W. Bush, was bottled up by Mr. Hastert and his allies, who knew it would pass if Democrats were allowed to vote. 

This was not a rule used by Democrats. Speaker Tom Foley allowed the North American Free Trade Agreement to pass in 1993 on mostly Republican votes, and when Nancy Pelosi took the job in 2007, she repudiated the Hastert rule, allowing both parties to vote together on legislation. 

[I]f the country is to move forward on issues with widespread support — getting past the debt limit, immigration reform, gun control, and investments in education and infrastructure — he [John Boehner] will have to let the two parties vote together on a solution. 

Candidly, I am not going to hold my breath.  Today's GOP puts partisan games and ass kissing extremist ahead of the country's best interests and certainly the best interests of the majority of American families.  It's yet another reason I can not support any Republican.

Romney: Elect Me Or Else the House GOP Will Wreck The Economy

It's a bizarre closing argument for any campaign, but here's part of Mitt Romney's effort to close the deal: elect me or else the GOP controlled House of Representatives  will force a debt ceiling disaster. Yes, it is truly bizarre, but then again today's GOP is way past bizarre.  Rather than allow Barack Obama to be successful in a second term, Romney states that the House Republicans would rather force a debt crisis and drive the nation (and possibly the world) into a new economic depression.  It's an example of the spoil brat syndrome that is today's GOP.  It's akin to a spoil, undisciplined child who cannot have his/her way who then destroys whatever they can get their hands on.  Sadly, in this case what will be destroyed is the lives and finances of millions of Americans.  The GOP has clearly discarded any sense of wanting what's best for the nation or everyday Americans.  

Of course, what makes it all even more perverse and hypocrisy filled is the fact that the GOP claims to be the party of "family values" and "Christian morality."  The GOP simply no longer cares what harm it inflicts on millions of hard working Americans and their families.  It's part and parcel with the desire to repeal the Affordable Health Care Act and leave millions without insurance and the sick Romney/Ryan desire to disband federal emergency relief programs and leave relief and recover work either to the states or vulture like private contractors.  In the wake of Hurricane Frederic in Mobile back in 1979, I saw first had how rapacious contractors can be in desperate situations such as those currently in New York and New Jersey.  Yet this is what Romney in the past says he favors.  But I digress.  Here are highlights from Talking Points Memo where Romney's threat to voters is reviewed:

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In what his campaign billed as his “closing argument,” Mitt Romney warned Americans that a second term for President Obama would have apocalyptic consequences for the economy in part because his own party would force a debt ceiling disaster.  “Unless we change course, we may well be looking at another recession,” Romney told a crowd in West Allis, Wisconsin.

Romney said that Obama “promised to be a post-partisan president, but he became the most partisan” and that his bitter relations with the House GOP could threaten the economy. As his chief example, he pointed to a crisis created entirely by his own party’s choice — Republican lawmakers’ ongoing threat to reject a debt ceiling increase. Economists warn that a failure to pass such a measure would have immediate and catastrophic consequences for the recovery. 

“You know that if the President is re-elected, he will still be unable to work with the people in Congress,” Romney said. “He has ignored them, attacked them, blamed them. The debt ceiling will come up again, and shutdown and default will be threatened, chilling the economy.”

With four days left, Romney may need an exceptionally strong close to overcome the president in the electoral college. The overwhelming majority of polls show Obama with a modest but stable lead in critical swing states, most notably Ohio, and other potentially decisive states like Virginia and Colorado remain tossups at best. 

Many in the GOP seek to describe Obama as "un-American."  One can only assume is what is really happening is that they are looking at themselves in the mirror.  

Joe Scarborough Envisions the Coming Decimation of the Republican Party

I do not always agree with his views, but nonetheless, Joe Scarborough - who could likely not be elected in today's GOP - often demonstrates that one can be a conservative without the requirement of being clinically insane. Now, Scarborough has authored a piece that looks at "the morning after" should the GOP extremists and betrayers of America in Congress block a raising of the debt limit. As a Virginian, I applaud the fact that Scarborough targets Eric Cantor, a duplicitous weasel if there ever one, in particular. I truly hope that a default is averted. But if it happens, one can only hoe that it sounds the death knell of the GOP. A after that will be most deserved. Here are highlights from Scarborough's column at Politico which is date August 3, 2011:
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It was a financial storm that even an economics professor could see coming. The debt crisis that had gripped Washington for a month came to a sudden, horrifying climax that left America’s economy looking like a nuclear wasteland. Credit markets suffered life-threatening seizures as the stock market dropped a staggering 25 percent. U.S. Treasuries plummeted as Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s downgraded the United States’ credit rating — instantly adding trillions of dollars in interest costs to the national debt.
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The threat of exploding interest rates on home mortgages, cars, student loans and credit cards caused growing concerns. But it was the gutting of 401(k)’s and pension programs that would soon stir panic.
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President Barack Obama went before TV cameras to try to calm Americans. Despite his shaky on-air performance, the president’s message was convincing and explained why the overwhelming majority of Americans surveyed in an overnight Gallup Poll blamed Republicans for the financial catastrophe that had quickly brought the world’s largest economy to its knees.
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For the next hour, markets continued to drop. By late afternoon, the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ took the extraordinary step of closing their markets. . . . . But the damage was already done. In a day’s time, America’s credit rating had collapsed, the dollar had fallen into disrepute and the life savings of millions of Americans had been wiped out.
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Inside the office of the speaker of the House, Jamie Dimon and Jeff Immelt joined Geithner and Bernanke to explain in the bluntest terms possible the stakes that lay before John Boehner’s Republican caucus. Bernanke summarized their positions. “Mr. Speaker, this Congress can either pass a long-term deal tonight to bring sanity back to the markets or can expect to face unimaginable economic consequences in the morning.” The Fed chairman stood up to leave but left Boehner with a final jab. “There is no Plan B. Not after Congress’s performance today.”
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Boehner entered the grim caucus room and went straight to the podium, telling members that the events of the day had made irrelevant any ideological argument. He was finished in a few minutes and then turned the mic over to Cantor, who told conservatives that the only option left to them was to live to fight another day. Only Michele Bachmann and a handful of freshman members delivered impassioned pleas to keep waging their war on Obama. But those short speeches were written more as fodder for future press releases than to persuade fellow Republicans.
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The meeting was quickly adjourned with the understanding that Boehner would immediately call a vote to stop the hemorrhaging of world markets by extending the debt ceiling. In so doing, Boehner and his conservative caucus would be giving the president what he had been asking for all along.
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The $4 trillion deal that the speaker had once hoped for was now nothing more than an opportunity lost. His party could have had a historic deal to reduce the national debt. His caucus could have made a real difference. Instead, their intransigence crippled America’s economy and clinched the reelection of Barack Obama.
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I hope that Scarborough's vision proves true and is in fact what overtakes the GOP if the party continues to place playing politics ahead of the welfare of the nation and rank and file citizens.

Eric Cantor Hit For Potentially Profiting From U.S. Default

I have previously looked at the issue of the weasel like Congressman Eric Cantor who is potentially seeking to reap a personal financial find fall through pushing the USA into a default on its debt obligation. As previously noted, Cantor has invested in a fund that will sky rocket in value should the debt limit impasse not be resolved. Democrats have belatedly found some back bone and a resolution is being circulated that puts a spot light on Cantor's duplicitous conflict of interest. Cantor's behavior truly needs to be made front page news. The man is disgusting and an embarrassment to Virginia. As noted before I suspect the man would sell his own mother for the right price in his quest for power - and based on Cantor's madness for power, I suspect that the price might not be all that high. Here are highlights from Huffington Post on the Democrat backed resolution the text of which can be found at the HuffPo page:
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House Democrats are circulating a resolution accusing House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) of having a conflict of interest in the debt ceiling debate, a move that could provide an awkward C-SPAN moment for one of the lead Republicans in the budget negotiations. The resolution goes after Cantor's investment in ProShares Trust Ultrashort 20+ Year Treasury ETF, a fund that "takes a short position in long-dated government bonds."
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The fund is essentially a bet against U.S. government bonds. If the debt ceiling is not raised and the United States defaults on its debts, the value of Cantor's fund would likely increase.
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The Democratic resolution, obtained by The Huffington Post from a Democratic source on the Hill, argues that Cantor "stands to profit from U.S. treasury default, which thereby raises the appearance of a conflict of interest," and that he "may be sabotaging [debt ceiling] negotiations for his own personal gain."
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The resolution is a question of privilege, which deals with the rights, dignity, safety and integrity of the proceedings of the House of Representatives. It has direct access to the floor, meaning that at any time, a lawmaker can rise and question the privileges of the House and offer a resolution. It must then be read in its entirety, as soon as it is presented. The resolution is unlikely to be ruled valid by the parliamentarian, but it could certainly create an uncomfortable bit of political theater when it's read.
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"Given the language in this resolution, obviously that would be incendiary, if you chose the right moment," said a House Democratic aide who added that right now, it appeared the party was still shopping around for a member willing to put it on the floor.

The $2 Trillion Nightmare

Bob Herbert at the New York Times has a good opinion column in today's paper (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/opinion/04herbert.html?em&ex=1204779600&en=c44ca333e64258c9&ei=5087%0A) that focuses on the financial cost of the Iraq War. It does not even get into the costs in terms of lives lost - both American and Iraqi, although obviously the latter mean nothing to the Christianist base of the GOP - and the increased danger to the USA as a result of the Chimperator's ill-conceived and fraudulently marketed war adventure. Sadly, not enough attention has been paid to this financial disaster which John McCain is willing to extend indefinitely and for which Hillary Clinton voted authorization TWICE. Here are some highlights that look at other ways this incedibly vast amount of money might better have been spent:

The war in Iraq will ultimately cost U.S. taxpayers not hundreds of billions of dollars, but an astonishing $2 trillion, and perhaps more. There has been very little in the way of public conversation, even in the presidential campaigns, about the consequences of these costs, which are like a cancer inside the American economy. Mr. Stiglitz and Mr. Hormats both addressed the foolhardiness of waging war at the same time that the government is cutting taxes and sharply increasing non-war-related expenditures.

On Thursday, the Joint Economic Committee, chaired by Senator Chuck Schumer, conducted a public examination of the costs of the war. The witnesses included the Nobel Prize-winning economist, Joseph Stiglitz (who believes the overall costs of the war — not just the cost to taxpayers — will reach $3 trillion), and Robert Hormats, vice chairman of Goldman Sachs International. Both men talked about large opportunities lost because of the money poured into the war. “For a fraction of the cost of this war,” said Mr. Stiglitz, “we could have put Social Security on a sound footing for the next half-century or more.”

Mr. Hormats mentioned Social Security and Medicare, saying that both could have been put “on a more sustainable basis.” And he cited the committee’s own calculations from last fall that showed that the money spent on the war each day is enough to enroll an additional 58,000 children in Head Start for a year, or make a year of college affordable for 160,000 low-income students through Pell Grants, or pay the annual salaries of nearly 11,000 additional border patrol agents or 14,000 more police officers.

What we’re getting instead is the stuff of nightmares. Mr. Stiglitz, a professor at Columbia, has been working with a colleague at Harvard, Linda Bilmes, to document, among other things, some of the less obvious costs of the war. These include the obligation to provide health care and disability benefits for returning veterans. Those costs will be with us for decades. Already we are seeing large numbers of returning veterans showing up at V.A. hospitals for treatment, large numbers applying for disability and large numbers with severe psychological problems.”

The Bush administration has tried its best to conceal the horrendous costs of the war. It has bypassed the normal budgetary process, financing the war almost entirely through “emergency” appropriations that get far less scrutiny.