CBO Report: Iraq adding to the birth tax

A new reportreleased by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the researcharm of the Legislative Branch, indicated this morning just how much we are payingfor the war in Iraq, and how much we should expect to pay for the next decade.

The Los Angeles Times breaks it down for us:

The war in Iraq has cost $291 billion so far and would total almosthalf a trillion dollars even if all U.S. troops were withdrawn by theend of 2009, according to a Congressional Budget Office analysisreleased Thursday.

And over the next ten years, that's between 2007 and 2016, the war will cost taxpayers between $202 billion and $406 billion more.

I used to have the opinion (as in right after 9/11) that money should never factor into how we conduct our foreign policy.  In other words, we need to do whatever we can, regardless of what it takes, to defend our democracy from terrorism.  But other than the fact that you could say the Iraq war is actually increasing terrorism throughout the world, I learned over time that foreign policy, like anything else, has its limits. 

When you mortgage the treasury, regardless of the reason, it impacts future generations.  The Republicans like to talk about protecting the unborn.  They also like to talk about the so called "death tax."  These unborn children will literally pay the price for our reckless spending habits.  It is like a birth tax on future generations who will shake their heads during 6th grade history class, wondering why their early 21st century ancestors never got it together.

It's time to start redeploying troops to the periphery immediately, as opposed to waiting until 2009, and significantly reduce the amount we are paying for this war per week.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Other blogs writing about this issue: YaPundit, Econ Browser, The Road to Surfdom, Evergreen Politics, The Blue Voice, Anti-War Blog Coalition, Arizona Armadillo.