True Cost of the War

I've been thinking that $600 billion was plenty, but I have heard the $3 trillion figure bandied about. Now here's an interview with the folks who did the math. They talk about the fact that the Pentagon has failed its audit for a decade but just goes blithely forward and that the government uses cash accounting, which hides the true cost over time of anything purchased via loans or "on time."

All the $600 billion that we have spent has been borrowed, so it's not like we've put any down payment down. This is the first time in our entire history that we've done this. We have not raised taxes or cut spending to pay for the war; we've actually cut taxes and raised spending. This is the first time since the Revolutionary War that we have borrowed from overseas for a war.

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