alwayssummer
Posts: 89
Joined: 9/13/2008
Status: offline
|
Why this article to illustrate your bewildering notion that Iraqis should give us their oil "to pay us back" for invading their country? Having lost two brothers and his home to the US invasion of Iraq, inexplicably optimistic Ishmail here seems pretty typical of the war ravaged still left in Iraq. So he & his country owe us their oil too? Seriously, WTF?
BTW those prices are so way more than the US gov't would get for the used crap(and crappers) on craigslist. eg, $50 for a used minifridge with "Do not open -US Gov't" stamped all over it .... plus a possible beheading bonus. Quel deal!
I do agree that the US Govt must stop devastating the Social Security trust fund to pay its war bills. So far billions into trillions are owed taxpayers back from raiding our trust fund built up over generations of contributions from our paychecks. Plus interest.
It is this theft from Social Security, not the "baby Boomers retiring" that has threatened the solvency of social security.
The taxpayer's Soc Sec trust fund is not the Pentagon's private slush fund. Nor the ATM for other other part of the Government for that matter.
I repeatedly read that the two events that took us from the annual surplus of the Clinton years to the annual deficits of the Bush
administration were the Bush-Cheney unaffordable Iraq War and the Bush tax refunds/ cuts. With this in mind, I'd say that there are plenty of other places to look besides stealing from Soc Security or Iraqi oil to pay down the deficit/ balance the budget. A few places to consider:
The waste by the DOD & military contractors; prosecute to recoup these contractors' unaccountably missing billions/trillions.
Oil company subsidies and their uncollected taxes and royalties
The often crooked farm subsidies and tax breaks for millionaire fake "farmers" and agribusiness
Billions being lost to the Repug orchestrated lapse in the inheritance tax enforcement this year
Increasing the income tax rate back to their "panacea" Regan years on people making over (this seems wildly fair) 3 mil/year Taxing evading corporations that have moved off shore if the majority of their employees reside in the US (especially govt contractors)
A sales tax on every Wall Street transaction
A national sales tax on interstate internet purchases...restoring some revenue to the states that have lost so much here
My special favorite -making hedge fund managers pay at reg income tax not at capital gains rates.
The notion of using Iraqi oil to pay for the Iraq invasion is eerily familiar. Congress was told by Bush & Cheney that we invaded Iraq for two, now completely discredited, reasons: Saddam was in cahoots with bin Laden for 911 and Saddam had WMDs. They featured the "Iraq War would pay for itself out of Iraq Oil Revenues!" Yes, the NeoCons publicly espoused seizing the oil right from the beginning. The War was initially presented(post invasion btw) to Congress as "deficit neutral" based on this Neo Con brain fart.
The Iraqis have had 150000 of their civilians killed, many hundreds of thousands wounded, and experienced mass homelessness and exodus - including the majority of their educated and professional class.
I'm glad Ishmail feels happy that we left him a few overpriced,used latrines to build a house for his surviving family. Let's leave him & his country its oil too. It does not belong to us, just as the Social Security Trust Fund does not belong to the Pentagon.
|
RE: How about using Iraq oil revenue to cut the U.S. d... - 
Profile
New Messages
No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages
Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages
Locked w/o New Messages
Post New Thread