"You still have $384.5 billion to spare." Geez. What are we going to do with that?
A trillion dollars sure does go a long way when you don't have to kill anybody. And yet a trillion dollars was merely the direct cost of those two wars up to that point. On September 5th economists Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes published a column in the Washington Post, building on their earlier book of a similar title, "The True Cost of the Iraq War: $3 Trillion and Beyond." The authors argued that their estimate of $3 trillion for just the War on Iraq, first published in 2008, was probably low. Their calculation of the total cost of that war included the cost of diagnosing, treating and compensating disabled veterans, which by 2010 was higher than they had expected. And that was the least of it:
"Two years on, it has become clear to us that our estimate did not capture what may have been the conflict's most sobering expenses: those in the category of 'might have beens,' or what economists call opportunity costs. For instance, many have wondered aloud whether, absent the Iraq invasion, we would still be stuck in Afghanistan. And this is not the only 'what if' worth contemplating. We might also ask: If not for the war in Iraq, would oil prices have risen so rapidly? Would the federal debt be so high? Would the economic crisis have been so severe?
"The answer to all four of these questions is probably no. The central lesson of economics is that resources -- including both money and attention -- are scarce."
That lesson has not penetrated Capitol Hill, where Congress repeatedly chooses to fund wars while pretending it has no choice.
On June 22nd House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer spoke in a large private room at Union Station in Washington, D.C. and took questions. He had no answers for the questions I put to him.
Hoyer's topic was fiscal responsibility, and he said that his proposals -- which were all pure vagueness -- would be appropriate to enact "as soon as the economy is fully recovered." I'm not sure when that was expected.
Hoyer, as is the custom, bragged about cutting and trying to cut particular weapons systems. So I asked him how he could have neglected to mention two closely related points. First, he and his colleagues had been increasing the overall military budget each year. Second, he was working to fund the escalation of the war in Afghanistan with a "supplemental" bill that kept the expenses off the books, outside the budget.
Hoyer replied that all such issues should be "on the table." But he did not explain his failure to put them there or suggest how he would act on them. None of the assembled Washington press corpse (sic) followed up.
Two other people asked good questions about why in the world Hoyer would want to go after Social Security or Medicare. One guy asked why we couldn't go after Wall Street instead. Hoyer mumbled about passing regulatory reform, and blamed Bush.
Hoyer repeatedly deferred to President Obama. In fact, he said that if the president's commission on the deficit (a commission apparently designed to propose cuts to Social Security, a commission commonly referred to as the "catfood commission" for what it may reduce our senior citizens to consuming for dinner) produced any recommendations, and if the Senate passed them, then he and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would put them on the floor for a vote -- no matter what they might be.
In fact, shortly after this event, the House passed a rule putting in place the requirement that it vote on any catfood commission measures passed by the Senate.
Later Hoyer informed us that only a president can stop spending. I spoke up and asked him "If you don't pass it, how does the President sign it?" The Majority Leader stared back at me like a deer in the headlights. He said nothing.
There are 115 incumbents and 99 challengers who will stop funding wars, and many more who will not. But how many Washington DC-area liberals will ever stop funding David Broder?
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