We Can Afford Afghanistan But Not Irene?
Reported the New York Times this week:
“Hurricane Irene will most likely prove to be one of the 10 costliest catastrophes in the nation’s history… Industry estimates put the cost of the storm at $7 billion to $10 billion…”
Congressman Eric Cantor said this week that the cost of Irene must be met with budget cuts. Reports Bloomberg:
“Those monies’ for responding to disasters ‘are not unlimited,’ said House Majority Leader Cantor of Virginia in an Aug. 29 interview on Fox News. ‘We’ll find other places to save so that we can fund the role the federal government needs to play.”
Yet, what Irene might cost in its totality is what the United States spends in one month on our war efforts, particularly in Afghanistan. Reported McClatchy News Service last month:
“According to Defense Department figures, by the end of April the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan… had cost an average of $9.7 billion a month, with roughly two-thirds going to Afghanistan.”
Question: If the government “monies” for disasters like Irene “are not unlimited,” why do so many Washington politicians insist that such funding is unlimited when it comes to our foreign policy?
Does basic math stop at the water’s edge?
