War Cost

[debrand]

Because of jericho's thread, I decided to look up the cost of the war. According to an article written in 2011 in the LA Times, the war at that point cost over 2.5 trillion dollars.

 

 

Quote

To date, the United States has spent more than $2.5 trillion on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon spending spree that accompanied it and a battery of new homeland security measures instituted after Sept. 11.

 

How have we paid for this? Entirely through borrowing. Spending on the wars and on added security at home has accounted for more than one-quarter of the total increase in U.S. government debt since 2001. And not only did we fail to pay as we went for the wars, the George W. Bush administration also successfully pushed to cut taxes in 2001 and again in 2003, which added further to the debt. This toxic combination of lower revenues and higher spending has brought the country to its current political stalemate.

 

There is only one other time in U.S. history that a war was financed entirely through borrowing, without raising taxes: when the Colonies borrowed from France during the Revolutionary War.

 

edited to add link http://articles.latimes.com/2011/sep/18 ... t-20110918

[Artemis]

I put something about this on the thread, but he hasn't deigned to reply to it yet :(

[debrand]

I put something about this on the thread, but he hasn't deigned to reply to it yet :(

I was hoping that he would see this thread and comment