Never ending war by Claudia Sonea

The fight between the Democrats and the White House on Congress' Joint Economic Committee, on the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and their costs seems endless. The report released by the Democrats on Tuesday includes interest payments money borrowed to pay for the wars, lost investment, the expense of long-term health care for injured veterans and the cost of oil market disruptions and show a total double than that asked by The White House of $1.6 trillion. From 2002 until 2008 there were a lot of money spent with the war and the American economy is pretty shacked. Only with the war in Iraq was spent $1.3 trillion for this period and to this cost a family of four would contribute with $16,500, according to the report. The costs are expected to grow in the nearby future to $3.5 trillion between 2003 and 2017. By presenting the report in the Congress the Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid also criticized Bush's war strategy, offering this way the chance for the White House to say through press secretary Dana Perino that the report is subjective, politically motivated and not elaborated in cooperation with the Republicans. Israel Klein, spokesman for the Joint Economic Committee, stopped the word confrontation between Perino who was defending Bush and Reid who stated the new demand of money reveals the lassitude of the President to admit his failure and change the course of wars. He said that the White House is only trying to deflect the attention from the real problem, because the nonpartisan CBO (Congressional Budget Office) was always used regardless of which party is in the majority. Despite the protest of the Republicans, the report presented real facts about the oil prices that grew from $37 to $90 a barrel and can slow overall economic growth if that chills spending and investment by consumers and businesses. No matter what the White House says, the economical situation in US is suffering a lot of changes that have a terrible effect on the Americans. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., the panel's vice chair, confirmed the statement of Joint Economic Committee Chairman Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. that Iraq war has already cost too much. The never ending war is no highly debated not only on the battlefield, but also behind the curtains.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071113/ap_on_go_co/war_costs;_ylt=AgJFHyqq0K0N.1R1a5orAp2s0NUE

by Claudia Sonea for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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