Despite boasting it attacked Iraq and is there for the long haul to protect Americans, the Bush-Cheney presidency has done nothing to protect Americans from being stiffed by our cherished ally.
The Government Accoutability Office finds that by year's end, Iraq will have a $79 billion surplus languishing in banks, while hapless and helpless American taxpayers have been fleeced of $48 billion to rebuild the war-shattered Iraq.
Worse, $10 billion of the Iraqi surplus now sits in New York banks drawing interest—$435.6 million so far, according to the GAO.
One comparison shows the extent to which Americans are being stiffed.
While President Bush has ordered $23.2 billion to be spent on rebuilding Iraq's water, oil, electricity and security systems, Iraq has spent only $3.9 billion on the same services.
What really should steam taxpayers are the empty promises made by White House officials, especially Vice President Cheney and his war hawks, that the war would only cost a pittance because Iraq's oil revenues would cover expenses.
So much for the crackerjack planners and managers of the war. With relentless predictability, Washington is shelling out $10 billion per month for the Iraq war. The total costs now are hovering near $750 billion, or three-fourths of a trillion dollars, much of it to Bush-Cheney corporate cronies handed no-bid contracts.
What has been the Bush-Cheney reaction to GAO's report of Iraq's sitting on billions of dollars while recession-pinched Americans pay for its expenses?
Silence.
