Land of Oz

$$$

From USAToday

Cheney defended the request.

"What's the cost if we don't act? What's the cost if we do nothing? What's the cost if we don't succeed with respect to our current operation in Iraq?" he asked. "I think that's far higher than getting the job done right here."

Suggested the White House does not support outfitting all commercial airliners with protection against being shot down by surface-to-air missiles because it would be too expensive.

Makes you wonder how they justify $87 billion for Iraq - see the following story.


From New York Times

The $5.6 trillion surplus once predicted for the 10 years ending in 2011 is now a $2.3 trillion cumulative deficit under the best-case prediction issued by the Congressional Budget Office two weeks ago.

The current fiscal year, which ends this month, was supposed to have ended with a surplus of $353 billion, the Congressional Budget Office predicted two years ago; today, the office says the year will end in a $401 billion deficit. Next year's deficit was projected to be $480 billion, but the new Iraq spending will bring that to $540 billion or higher ” close to the 5 percent of the gross domestic product that many experts warn is a serious danger zone for the economy.

The pressure is likely to get worse, particularly if the occupation of Iraq continues to consume $4 billion a month.

I'm not even going to think about $2.3 trillion -- how can you even imagine something that big? Let's look at $4 billion a month though. That's $4,000,000,000 which is more than most calculators can enter. That's about $133 million each DAY, or in other words, $1,543 a SECOND which means that during a 30 second commercial you have spent enough to buy a gas guzzling Hummer and during the second 30 second commercial, you have spent enough to even buy gas for it!

2fers: http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/(your share is about $24,000) and http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/ on my birthday month the US owed $14,060,171,915.01 in interest! You gotta wonder about that penny, don't you?