DO YOU THINK BUSH WOULD DECEIVE US ABOUT THE COSTS OF THE IRAQ WAR?

Do you think you could have found a way to use an extra $20,000? That how much Bush's wars have cost each and every average American family of four. And if you're a regular DWT reader you know we haven't let the craven rubber stamp Congress off lightly either. But there are all these hidden costs that seem to have doubled the cost of the war... kind of like that ole' Bush magic. Hidden costs-- the ones that are driving the costs up towards $2 trillion-- include things like the interest payments on the money Bush has been borrowing, much of it from foreign sources, to pay for the war, as well as the costs for treating wounded veterans (at least $30 billion) and more speculative costs like the compounding costs to the economy of higher oil prices.

That amount is nearly double the $804 billion the White House has spent or requested to wage these wars through 2008, according to the Democratic staff of Congress's Joint Economic Committee. Its report, titled "The Hidden Costs of the Iraq War," estimates that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have thus far cost the average U.S. family of four more than $20,000.

"The full economic costs of the war to the American taxpayers and the overall U.S. economy go well beyond even the immense federal budget costs already reported," said the 21-page draft report, obtained yesterday by the Washington Post.

Democrats keep carping about these things but they don't do anything about it. Like Rep. Luis Gutierrez said in reference to xenophobic immigration legislation being supported by Rahm Emanuel and Steny Hoyer, "We might as well put the Republicans in charge.” As Jane said at FDL today in regard to our dinner with Senator Jon Tester (D-MT), having a Democratic majority in the Senate hasn't done a single thing to rein in Bush on Iraq. Nothing.