The Seven Deadly Deficits: What the Bush Years Really Cost Us
And how President Obama can get the economy back on track.
When President George W. Bush assumed office, most of those disgruntled about the stolen election contented themselves with this thought: Given our system of checks and balances, given the gridlock in Washington, how much damage could be done? Now we know: far more than the worst pessimists could have imagined. From the war in Iraq to the collapse of the credit markets, the financial losses are difficult to fathom. And behind those losses lie even greater missed opportunities.
Put it all together — the money squandered on the war, the money wasted on a housing pyramid scheme that impoverished the nation and enriched a few, and the money lost because of the recession — and the gap between what we could have produced and what we did produce will easily exceed $1.5 trillion. Think what that kind of money could have done to provide health care for the uninsured, to improve our education system, to build green technology … The list is endless.
And the true cost of our missed opportunities is likely even greater. Consider the war: First there are the funds directly allocated to it by the government (an estimated $12 billion a month even according to the misleading accounting of the Bush administration). Much larger, as the Kennedy School’s Linda Bilmes and I documented in The Three Trillion Dollar War, are the indirect costs: the salaries not earned by those wounded or killed, the economic activity displaced (from, say, spending on American hospitals to spending on Nepalese security contractors). Such social and macroeconomic factors may account for more than $2 trillion of the war’s overall cost.
There is a silver lining in these clouds. If we can pull ourselves out of the malaise, if we can think more carefully and less ideologically about how to make our economy stronger and our society better, perhaps we can make progress in addressing some of our long-festering problems. As a road map for where to begin, consider the seven major shortfalls the Bush administration leaves behind.
Shoes of Dignity
Posted in Commentary, iraq, Media, US President George W. Bush on December 22, 2008 | 4 Comments »
By VOA News
17 December 2008
A Saudi Arabian man has offered $10 million for the shoes of an Iraqi journalist hurled at U.S. President George Bush in Baghdad Sunday.
Middle Eastern news agencies reported on Mohamed Makhafa’s offer Wednesday. He is quoted telling Cairo’s al-Safwa Television that the footwear hurled at the U.S. president’s head is the “shoe of dignity” with high “moral value.”
Meanwhile, Reuters news agency reports that an Egyptian man is offering his 20-year-old daughter in marriage to the shoe-thrower, Muntazer al-Zaidi.
Reuters reports the young woman Amal Saad Gumaa said she likes the idea of being attached to a man she finds so honorable.
Thousands of Iraqis have taken to the streets in support of Zaidi, who has achieved something of a folk hero status since the incident.
The shoe-tossing has also inspired an online game (www.SockAndAwe.com) that lets players throw brown laced-loafers at Mr. Bush. The site says more than 17 million cyber-shoes have struck the president’s virtual head as of Wednesday.
Zaidi threw one shoe, then the other, at President Bush during a joint news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Sunday. Mr. Bush ducked as each shoe narrowly missed hitting his head.
After throwing the first shoe, al-Zaidi yelled that it was a “farewell kiss” for Mr. Bush, whom he called a “dog.”
Security officials took Zaidi out of the room, as other Iraqi journalists apologized. President Bush shrugged off the incident and said he never felt threatened.
You can throw your own shoes at Duhbya right here…(:
Sock and Awe
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