Costliest Government Program Of All? - The $5 Trillion In Undeclared Wars Over The Last Decade

CS Monitor

In their zeal to cut government spending, Republicans in Congress have been quoting the Constitution and hacking away at funds for National Public Radio, which saved $5 million.

But if those same Republicans had seriously honored the Constitution 10 years ago, they might have saved $4-to-6 trillion.

That’s the total estimated cost of America’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – wars that Congress putatively authorized but never formally declared. Article I, Section 8, is explicit: “The Congress shall have Power to ... declare War.” But to its discredit, Congress has failed the American people for more than half a century on this score.

And now it’s happening again, as the US began bombing Libya without a congressional declaration – or even a single hearing or debate.

It’s all well and good for tea party sloganeers and their Republican allies to gripe about budget deficits. But it smacks of political cowardice when they neglect to tell the American people that our habit of fighting undeclared wars may be our costliest government “program” of all.

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Video - Dennis Kucinich with Mike Huckabee - Apr. 2, 2011

Comments

[Inurface]

Dumb and Dumber

[LiberatedCitizen]

US Fighters Still Bombing Libya Air Defenses: Official

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hM3VyhXoC_FSqRRycYTOeByAn6tg?docId=CNG.02e59dd6cb2c6353408522f79d0dd27f.31

Obama’s Fateful Abuse of War Powers

http://www.cnionline.org/obamas-fateful-abuse-of-war-powers/#more-2040

Blood on the hands of the peace prize president

[DailyBail]

Watching the public debate on the budget, we are reminded of two boys on the floor playing with toys. One has a bear and the other has a dinosaur. They are forever threatening the other kid with taking the toy away. One warns he will take away the dinosaur (military spending) and the other says he will grab the bear (domestic spending). They pull and tug and eventually settle the dispute so long as each gets to keep his favorite.

Oh, and one other thing: both toys belong to other children.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/rockwell/budget-battle177.html

[DailyBail]

To help put the government spending racket in some perspective, it should be remembered that President Kennedy submitted a proposed budget of $99.9 billion, because he didn’t want to be the first president to have a peace-time budget of $100 billion!

http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/85140.html