| More Waste to Come |
29 September 2003
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Bush Plan Throws Money Away in Iraq
While swine flesh isn't permitted to Muslims under the halal dietary laws, it would appear that the Bush administration is insistent on serving pork to Iraq three times daily. In the president's latest $20 billion request for rebuilding a nation that could do with some work, there is more than a bit of bacon.
That isn't to say that the money isn't needed, but as usual, the people who need it and the people who get it are unlikely to have even a nodding acquaintance with one another. On the plus side, $150 million for a children's hospital in Basra may or may not be a bargain (less so if the cost over-runs push it to the $700 million suggested in the Wall Street Journal), but at least, something useful like a hospital is the end result.
Other items are less valuable. For example, there is a $100 million witness-protection program designed to protect 100 Iraqis and their families. It may well be that such a program will help root out the last of the Saddamite resistance, but in the US, the federal witness protection program covers about 250 people and their families for less than $32 million. Iraq will get $225 per capita for electricity works, while Uncle Sam spends a whopping 71 cents per American for the same sorts of projects. August 14, 2003, the lights were on in Baghdad and Basra, not in Detroit or New York.
To their credit, Republicans like Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine are saying, "Questions will be asked on what's essential and what we're getting." One hopes they don't get a "catch-up business" course at $10,000 per head for four weeks of management training. Harvard Business School offers a week -long course in "Leadership Best Practices" for just $9,000 -- a saving of time and money, even if one does have to spend the week in Boston.
Having opted to depose the Saddamite regime and help Iraq recover its future, the Bush administration can argue that it is doing the right thing. It cannot argue that by spending money irresponsibly that it is helping Iraq or America.
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