October 25, 2007
$2.4 trillion dollars is enough to keep Social Security solvent for the next seventy five years. That's also the amount that our government plans to spend over the next ten years on the war in Iraq.
This staggering figure provided by the Congressional Budget Office on Wednesday was immediately dismissed by the President. But let's not forget the CBO is the government. Founded in 1974, led by a director appointed by the Speaker of the House and the President pro tempore of the Senate, the CBO is staffed with economists and public policy analysts, 70% of whom hold advanced degrees in economics or public policy from schools such as MIT, Stanford, Yale, Columbia and the University of Chicago. The whole purpose of the CBO is to provide estimates of spending and revenue to our elected officials -- and to you and me. The CBO "serves as an enforceable blueprint for Congressional action on spending and revenue legislation". They may not, by law, comment on policy –they may only forecast its economic results.
This is not a group to be summarily dismissed. And yet, that is what the White House is doing. Our President is once again attempting to hide the high price of this war. Not only are our young soldiers and Iraqi civilians paying the highest price, but the future of our humanity is about to be mortgaged as well.
