George Phillies for President 2008
Bush War Waste Endangers America
Libertarian Presidential candidate George Phillies today condemned the War on Iraq as an overwhelming financial catastrophe. «We will spend three trillion dollars,» he said, «on a war without a reason. Beyond the irreparable loss, the Iraqi and American war dead, an astronomical financial loss is now being visited on the American taxpayer.
«Thanks to profligate Bush deficit spending, that debt will be visited on every future generation,» he said. «George Bush wasted ten thousand dollars for each man, woman, and child in the United States, and that’s just on his war. Thanks to George Bush, America has more than nine trillion dollars of funded debt, and close to ten times that in unfunded liabilities.»
Phillies noted that the national debt soaks up liquidity, and turns it into consumer spending. «Our banks are in a liquidity and counterparty risk crisis,» Phillies said. «The Federal government is borrowing savings that could have stayed in private hands, and spending those savings on projects with no plausible return. That destabilizes the banking system, motivates banks to foreclose on shaky mortgages, and means that small businessmen face increasing obstacles to borrowing money to expand their businesses and create new jobs.»
Phillies reminded Americans of the link between the national debt and the trade deficit. «The only reason we can run a huge trade deficit,» Phillies said, «is the national debt. All those Treasury bonds mean that China and Korea and Japan can store dollars in their banks, rather than needing to use them to buy American goods. If there were no national debt, worries about outsourcing and foreign competition would largely fade away. That debt is the Republican legacy, a legacy of a generation of wastrel Congressmen throwing money away like drunken sailors on their last binge.»
«The only solution to this crisis,» Phillies said, «is to pay down the debt we have inherited from our foolish ancestors. We can’t do it overnight, but it can be done.»
–30–
Three trillion down the drain in Iraq? That’s a lot of money. Read
The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict (Hardcover)
by Joseph E. Stiglitz (Author), Linda J. Bilmes (Author)
for more details.
—
Carolyn Marbry
Press Director
National Mobilization Facilitator for Electronic Operations
(510) 276-3216
(520) 975-8002 (cell)
Phillies for President, 2008
http://ChooseGeorge.org