Carpe Datum

Elementary Math

Paul Krugman had another great column a few days ago, saying what needed to be said:

It's all coming true. Before the war, hawks insisted that Iraq was a breeding ground for terrorism. It wasn't then, but it is now. Meanwhile, administration apologists blamed terrorists, not tax cuts, for record budget deficits. In fact, before the war terrorism-related spending was relatively small ó less than $40 billion in fiscal 2002. But the costs of a "bring 'em on" foreign policy are now looming large indeed. The direct military cost of the occupation is $4 billion a month, and there's no end in sight. [...]

Even the government of a superpower can't simultaneously offer tax cuts equal to 15 percent of revenue, provide all its retirees with prescription drugs and single-handedly take on the world's evildoers ó single-handedly because we've alienated our allies. In fact, given the size of our budget deficit, it's not clear that we can afford to do even one of these things. Someday, when the grown-ups are back in charge, they'll have quite a mess to clean up.

Posted by Observer at August 31, 2003 08:28 AM