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You are here: Home / Maddening

Maddening

by John Cole|  August 6, 20087:57 am| 40 Comments

This post is in: Outrage

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This:

Soaring oil prices will leave the Iraqi government with a cumulative budget surplus of as much as $79 billion by year’s end, according to an American federal oversight agency. But Iraq has spent only a minute fraction of that on reconstruction costs, which are now largely borne by the United States.

The unspent windfall, which covers surpluses from oil sales since 2005, appears likely to reinforce growing debate about the approximately $48 billion in American taxpayer money devoted to rebuilding Iraq since the American-led invasion.

In one comparison, the United States has spent $23.2 billion in the critical areas of security, oil, electricity and water since the 2003 invasion, the report said. But from 2005 through April 2008, Iraq has spent just $3.9 billion on similar services.

Over all, the report from the Government Accountability Office estimates, Iraqi oil revenue from 2005 through the end of this year will amount to at least $156 billion. And in an odd financial twist, a large amount of the surplus money is sitting in an American bank in New York — nearly $10 billion at the end of 2007, with more expected this year, when the accountability office estimates a skyrocketing surplus.

We have a half trillion dollar annual deficit, some of which is caused by the war and occupation and rebuilding of Iraq, and Iraq is running an almost 80 billion dollar surplus.

It is enough to make you scream.

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Reader Interactions

40Comments

  1. 1.

    pika

    August 6, 2008 at 7:59 am

    Well, at least the Iraqis should get something out of the horror we’ve committed against them, right? Besides, I’m sure that somehow some KBR subsidiary will end up with the money anyway.

  2. 2.

    El Cid

    August 6, 2008 at 8:05 am

    Hey, don’t worry — it could turn up missing after being delivered in pallets of cash to various locations near significant U.S. contractors. Plus a week from now they could issue an important ‘correction’ after this negative press coverage and it turns out they forgot to deduct $110 billion of something else.

  3. 3.

    PeterJ

    August 6, 2008 at 8:06 am

    “Iraq is a very wealthy country. Enormous oil reserves. They can finance, largely finance the reconstruction of their own country. And I have no doubt that they will.”

    Richard Perle

    “There is a lot of money to pay for this that doesn’t have to be US taxpayer money, and it starts with the assets of the Iraqi people. We are talking about a country that can really finance its own reconstruction and relatively soon.”

    Paul Wolfowitz

    And some more.

  4. 4.

    crshedd

    August 6, 2008 at 8:06 am

    i want to scream with you.

    however, since we are the ones who blew the country up, why would we expect them to pay for it. they didn’t ask us to come in, they didn’t direct the war, etc. it was all us.

  5. 5.

    Elvis Elvisberg

    August 6, 2008 at 8:12 am

    I don’t begrudge them this surplus. Our decision to burn through a trillion or two dollars to turn their country into chaos is our problem.

    I don’t know who to trust less in allocating tens of billions of dollars, us or Iraq. It’s like the Gary Larson cartoon, with the king’s men trying to put Humpty Dumpty together again. “All right, you’ve had your turn, now the horses want another shot at it.”

    (NOTE: This is ONLY a criticism of the administration’s inability to spend money responsibly, and IN NO WAY questions the heroism of The Troops).

  6. 6.

    jeffreyw

    August 6, 2008 at 8:14 am

    *waves at leinie*

    How about using some of that to repatriate some of those millions of Iraqis languishing abroad?

  7. 7.

    p.a.

    August 6, 2008 at 8:18 am

    Didn’t a quote by the Iraqi Oil minister a few months back about why Iraqis were charged $1.23 for a gallon of gas while US forces were charged $3.?? go something like ‘Hey, we didn’t ask you to invade…’

  8. 8.

    4tehlulz

    August 6, 2008 at 8:20 am

    Just as planned.

  9. 9.

    The Moar You Know

    August 6, 2008 at 8:22 am

    We have a half trillion dollar deficit

    Ehhh, no. We’re a half-trillion dollars in debt for this fiscal year.

    The deficit is about 9 trillion dollars, and en route to being ten trillion by the end of this calendar year.

    Five trillion of that has been racked up by George W. Bush and the Republicans who ran the Senate between 2000 and 2006, although in all fairness, the Dems have not show one whit more of fiscal restraint.

  10. 10.

    Mike in Denmark

    August 6, 2008 at 8:23 am

    Let’s call it reparations for what we did to them shall we.

  11. 11.

    Pixie

    August 6, 2008 at 8:24 am

    Yeah kind of hard to get outraged at this seeing as how we were the ones who decided that we had to wage an unprovoked war in Iraq. And considering the fact that over a hundred thousand Iraqis have been killed, millions displaced, and the country is STILL in shambles, why would you begrudge them a surplus? Just because our government was dumb as *()^ doesn’t mean we have to drag the rest of the world down with us.

  12. 12.

    Dork

    August 6, 2008 at 8:25 am

    Uh….we fucking lost 9 Billion in one delivery. Not a single Congressman seemed to give a shit. Hypocrites, the lot of them, to even suggest that somehow this is beyond the pale.

    And when McCane suddenly is able to raise 2.4 billion dollars in mid-October from 19 million different “Republicans”, you’ll realize to whom this 9 billion was “lost”.

  13. 13.

    Shygetz

    August 6, 2008 at 8:26 am

    If we let the Iraqi’s finance the reconstruction, they might use Iraqi contractors. And lord knows we can’t have that.

  14. 14.

    Cap and Gown

    August 6, 2008 at 8:27 am

    This is off topic, but I wanted to alert you to a new Obama ad that, IMO, is going in the right direction. It is not defensive. I goes on the offense, and does exactly what I think Obama needs to do: tie McCain to Bush.

    New Obama ad

  15. 15.

    harlana pepper

    August 6, 2008 at 8:30 am

    Looking up a ceiling . . . ‘not gonna say it, nope, not gonna say it, don’t do it, restrain yerself.’

  16. 16.

    harlana pepper

    August 6, 2008 at 8:35 am

    Oh, in case anybody is wondering, I said it would be a fucking disaster.

    I’m sorry, but I feel like that girl that posted a coupla years ago on Kos after the Iraq Study Group report came out (anybody remember that one?) about being called a traitor and terrorist sympathizer for opposing the war from the get-go (because, you know, we read things besides government-produced propaganda). ‘Where’s my fuckin’ apology?’

  17. 17.

    harlana pepper

    August 6, 2008 at 8:37 am

    Although, I liked the guy that called into WSJ the other morning and said, “I’d like to apologize to the people of the United States for voting for Bush twice.’

    Thank you, sir. I accept.

    (can ya tell i’m feelin a bit self-righteous this morning?)

  18. 18.

    Heshe

    August 6, 2008 at 8:38 am

    Maybe we can get the Iraqis to pay for the repairs to our crumbling roads and bridges.

  19. 19.

    Original Lee

    August 6, 2008 at 8:39 am

    Maybe I’m remembering this incorrectly, but I believe part of the deal the UN cut with the U.S. on the invasion included the provision that the Iraqi oil revenues could not be used for reconstruction until after we pulled out. Wasn’t there a big concern among the oil-producing countries that we were invading in order to get our hands on Iraqi oil? UN Resolution 1511 has some text about the Iraqi people have sole disposal of their natural resources, I think:

  20. 20.

    Tim H.

    August 6, 2008 at 8:41 am

    I’ve kind of suspected Iraqis are way smarter than Americans. They don’t want to pay U.S. contractors who hire Asian subcontractors to build shit that doesn’t work. I’m OK with that.

  21. 21.

    Original Lee

    August 6, 2008 at 8:42 am

    Gosh darn it. Let’s try this again:

  22. 22.

    harlana pepper

    August 6, 2008 at 8:43 am

    Paul Wolfowitz (paraphrasing here): The oil revenues will pay for the war. Won’t cost us a dime.

  23. 23.

    CapMidnight

    August 6, 2008 at 8:46 am

    But $80 billion doesn’t go as far as it used to.
    We should still go ahead with offshore drilling in Iraqi waters.
    And an inscribed tire gauge to each Iraqi would make a lovely parting gift.

  24. 24.

    Original Lee

    August 6, 2008 at 8:47 am

    Argh. I re-read the tutorial and am trying one more time:

    UN Resolution 1511

  25. 25.

    DrDave

    August 6, 2008 at 8:48 am

    Andrew Natsios (head of USAID) in an interview with Ted Koppel on Nightline, April 23, 2003:

    Well, in terms of the American taxpayers contribution [of $1.7 billion], I do, this is it for the US. The rest of the rebuilding of Iraq will be done by other countries who have already made pledges, Britain, Germany, Norway, Japan, Canada, and Iraqi oil revenues, eventually in several years, when it’s up and running and there’s a new government that’s been democratically elected, will finish the job with their own revenues. They’re going to get in $20 billion a year in oil revenues. But the American part of this will be 1.7 billion. We have no plans for any further-on funding for this.

    If these guys aren’t the biggest liars on the planet, they are the dumbest motherfuckers in the history of mankind.

  26. 26.

    AkaDad

    August 6, 2008 at 8:50 am

    With 80 billion, the Iraqi’s can restart their nuclear weapons program.

  27. 27.

    harlana pepper

    August 6, 2008 at 8:52 am

    Oh, and I’d like figures on how much taxpayer money was wasted on piss-poor contractor-provided services to our troops that resulted in electrocution, contaminated water and rationed bottled water for troops performing in 100 degree heat, just for starters. I’ll have to admit, I did NOT see THAT one coming. It’s just too unfathomable. Like torture, for instance.

  28. 28.

    harlana pepper

    August 6, 2008 at 8:55 am

    jeff!!

  29. 29.

    Zifnab

    August 6, 2008 at 8:56 am

    And in an odd financial twist, a large amount of the surplus money is sitting in an American bank in New York — nearly $10 billion at the end of 2007, with more expected this year, when the accountability office estimates a skyrocketing surplus.

    Oh, how ironic! A large, politically-connected bank in New York is holding $10 billion in Iraqi capital that it can then loan out for its own profit. Truly, the Iraqis are taking brutally unfair advantage of the American taxpayer. And by “Iraqis” I mean “people running that New York bank”. Who, I am sure, are in no way donating money hand over fist to the RNC this year.

  30. 30.

    stickler

    August 6, 2008 at 8:59 am

    Sorry, Moar, but my inner pedant can’t let this stand:

    Ehhh, no. We’re a half-trillion dollars in debt for this fiscal year. The deficit is about 9 trillion dollars, and en route to being ten trillion by the end of this calendar year.

    No, no, no. The deficit is how much we’re adding to the national debt every year.

    This year’s federal budget deficit is predicted to exceed $482 billion. The national debt stands at around $9 trillion. Under George Bush the debt has nearly doubled!

    The Concord Coalition has some interesting information to help get you up to speed.

  31. 31.

    El Cid

    August 6, 2008 at 9:05 am

    DrDave Says:

    If these guys aren’t the biggest liars on the planet, they are the dumbest motherfuckers in the history of mankind.

    Oh, come now, you cynic. They’re both, of course!

  32. 32.

    jeffreyw

    August 6, 2008 at 9:25 am

    If these guys aren’t the biggest liars on the planet, they are the dumbest motherfuckers in the history of mankind.

    Oh, come now, you cynic. They’re both, of course!

    How can one tell? Easy!

    These motherfuckers tell the biggest, dumbest lies!

  33. 33.

    NonyNony

    August 6, 2008 at 9:36 am

    You think the money we’re paying out now is bad, wait until you see the bill our grandchildren are going to get handed for war reparations a few decades down the road.

    Hopefuly my meek cries of “I didn’t vote for him” and “I tried to get people to see what was going on” will keep them from pounding my wrinkly 80-year-old ass in frustration.

  34. 34.

    Tsulagi

    August 6, 2008 at 10:52 am

    Just more turds byproducts of success dropping into the overflowing bowl of Republican nation building.

    In the ongoing babysitting mission, the kids have their feet up on the coffee tables, jumping on the cushions, and ordering in more pizza on our credit cards. Let’s do some more nation building in oil producing countries to really get those byproducts flowing freely.

  35. 35.

    jake

    August 6, 2008 at 11:15 am

    We have a half trillion dollar annual deficit, some of which is caused by the war and occupation and rebuilding of Iraq, and Iraq is running an almost 80 billion dollar surplus.

    It is enough to make you scream.

    Hey, bAdmin only said we’d be greeted with flowers and candy. No one said they’d be stuffing $100s down the invaders’ pants.

    It pisses me off when the Dems whine about this because it strikes me to be a feeble way of making up for the fact they keep authorizing more money for Bush’s Desert Pony Quest. Boo-hoo. Suppose I were to lie and tell everyone Nancy Pelosi’s house is infested with radioactive rats and I have to act right away or they’ll breed and eat everyone. I burn her house down and shoot her neighbors, claiming that’s the only way to kill the suckers.

    When I present a bill for services, even if I claim my attempts to save the world from radioactive rats sent me into bankruptcy, she ain’t gonna pay and no one would expect her to pay.

    And what the hell can we do to Iraq if they don’t pay? Impose sanctions? Leave? Invade again?

    Pathetic.

  36. 36.

    Mike D.

    August 6, 2008 at 11:28 am

    And another one down, and another one down, another one bites the dust. Did somebody crap in his pants, or is that fiscal conservatism wafting through the air? Never mind the corpses, here’s the appropriations!

    I haven’t felt this seasick since Hillary accepted reality and the Magic 8-Ball lost its place as herald of Balloon Juice’s official karmic windsock.. You heard it here first: a certain commentationator on the Intarweb never stopped being a Republican for five minutes, but only puked up his soul in response to Arbusto’s excesses, like half the world, and who could blame him. Mark Twain helped Grant write his memoirs, and [email protected] will be whipping Democrats with copper wire before his first gray hair becomes visible at twenty paces. Depend on it.

  37. 37.

    p.a.

    August 6, 2008 at 11:29 am

    DrDave Says:

    If these guys aren’t the biggest liars on the planet, they are the dumbest motherfuckers in the history of mankind.

    Oh, come now, you cynic. They’re both, of course!

    twice!

  38. 38.

    p.a.

    August 6, 2008 at 11:32 am

    WTF!?? That’s not what I typed!!!

  39. 39.

    Cassidy

    August 6, 2008 at 7:17 pm

    Heaven forbid we demand that the Iraqi’s contribute to rebuilding Iraq! It’s only thier fuckin’ (shithole of a ) country.

    Some of you all are unbelievable.

  40. 40.

    jbarntt

    August 6, 2008 at 10:23 pm

    We have a half trillion dollar annual deficit, some of which is caused by the war and occupation and rebuilding of Iraq, and Iraq is running an almost 80 billion dollar surplus.

    It is enough to make you scream.

    I agree, we should seize Iraq’s oil revenues, or better install a puppet government which give them to us. Probably best to have permanent military bases in case the natives get restless.

    John, are you ditching your recent leftward swing and going all neoconservative on us ?

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