Newsgroup: it.arti.cinema
Titolo: What Can $87 Billion Buy?

 TomPaine.Common Sense
September 13, 2003
What Can $87 Billion Buy?
The Center for American Progress is a nonpartisan
research and educational institute based in Washington,
D.C.
On September 7th, President Bush asked Congress for an
additional $87 billion for the war in Iraq,
acknowledging that the engagement in Iraq is going to
cost many hundreds of billions of dollars. This was a
surprise considering that prior to the war, the
administration dismissed such estimates, and even fired
its top economic adviser, Lawrence Lindsey, for
suggesting those estimates were correct. To get some
perspective, here are some real-life comparisons about
what $87 billion means.
$87b Is More Than The Combined Total Of All State
Budget Deficits In The United States
The Bush administration proposed absolutely zero funds
to help states deal with these deficits, despite the
fact that their tax cuts drove down state revenues.
[Source: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities]
$87b Is Rougly The Total Of Two Years Worth Of All U.S.
Unemployment Benefits
The U.S. spends about $50 billion a year on
unemployment insurance. At least 1.1 million people
have exhausted all of their unemployment benefits
without finding a job, and yet Congress has refused to
extend benefits. [Source: Center on Budget and Policy
Priorities]
$87b Is Enough To Pay The 3.3 Million People Who Have
Lost Jobs $26,363 Each
The unemployment benefits extension passed by Congress
at the beginning of this year provides zero benefits to
"workers who exhausted their regular, state
unemployment benefits and cannot find work." All told,
two thirds of unemployed workers have exhausted their
benefits. [Source: Center on Budget and Policy
Priorities]
$87b Is More Than Double The Total Amount The
Government Spends On Homeland Security
The U.S. spends about $36 billion on homeland security.
Yet, Sen. Warren Rudman (R-N.H.) wrote "America will
fall approximately $98.4 billion short of meeting
critical emergency responder needs" for homeland
security without a funding increase. [Source: Council
on Foreign Relations]
$87b Is 7 Times What The Government Spends On Title I
For Low-Income Schools
President Bush proposed a budget of just $12 billion
for Title I, leaving a $6.2 billion hole in what he
promised to spend on Title I in his No Child Left
Behind Bill. [Source: House Appropriations Committee]
$87b Is 87 Times The Amount The Federal Government
Spends On After School Programs
President Bush proposed a budget that reduces the $1
billion for after-school programs to $600 million --
cutting off about 475,000 children from the program.
[Souce: House Appropriations Committee]
$87b Is About 9 Times What The Federal Government
Spends On Special Education
Legislation authorizes the federal government to pay 40
percent of the cost of special education, but because
of budget shortfalls, it only pays roughly 18 percent
(or $9.9 billion), driving up local property taxes.
[Source: House Appropriations Committee]
$87b Is More Than 10 Times What The Government Spends
On All Environmental Protection
The Bush administration requested just $7.6 billion for
the entire Environmental Protection Agency. This
included a 32 percent cut to water quality grants, a 6
percent reduction in enforcement staff, and a 50
percent cut to land acquisition and conservation.
[Source: Natural Resources Defense Council]
$87b Is 8 Times The Total For Pell Grants -- The Major
College Program In The U.S.
In 1975, when the Pell Grant program was established,
it financed about 84 percent of the cost of attending a
four-year public college. Today, that share is down to
about 40 percent, and under Congress’s current proposal
to freeze Pell Grant funding at about $10 billion, it
would drop to 38 percent. [Source: House Appropriations
Committee]
$87b Is More Than The Total Cost Of The First 3 Years
Of The Medicare Pres. Drug Proposal
[Source: Congressional Budget Office]
$87b Is Enough To Give Every Man, Woman And Child In
America $300
"[We] want to control spending. And I hope Congress
lives up to their words. When they talk about deficits,
they can join us in making sure we don't overspend.
They can join us and make sure that [they are] focused
those items that are absolutely necessary to the
American people." - President Bush, Jan. 6, 2003
http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/8857
-- 
"That's part of your problem: you haven't seen enough movies.
 All of life's riddles are answered in the movies." (Grand Canyon)
AP uin:283264
www.iaciners.org

> What Can $87 Billion Buy?
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What Can $87 Billion Buy?
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