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Despite reports that the Dow Jones average rose 60 points during Colin Powell’s address to the U.N. Security Council yesterday, the United States’ economy is not strong enough to support a war with Iraq.
President Bush’s budget will create a $307 billion shortfall this year and a $304 billion deficit in 2004. This will surpass the record of the $290 billion deficit established during the first President Bush’s administration, according to CNN.com.
With such budget problems it is irresponsible to enter into a war that will cost an unbudgeted $20 billion dollars. Our country obviously doesn’t have the money for it. When our leaders consider war, the struggling economy must become an issue — no one wants to see another Great Depression.
The national debt limit is currently set at $6.4 trillion, and the U.S. government is already dangerously close to this limit at $6.3 trillion. America cannot afford to pay for another war.
“Economists and others doubt that Congress will eventually raise the [debt] limit,” said a report from CNN.com. “A federal default is considered unimaginable because it would rattle the bond markets, force interest rates higher, weaken the world economy and deliver a jarring political blow to President Bush.”
Members of Congress are quick to pass the blame to others for the budget woes. Democrats point to Bush’s mishandling of the economy and his promised tax cuts, while Republicans look to fighting terrorism as the reason for the 2001 recession. Neither side will recognize that the first step to relieving the debt is to stop spending money we don’t have, beginning with the $20 billion for the war in Iraq.
Those in Washington need to carefully weigh the economic risks of going to war with Iraq, or the prosperity of the American people will suffer the most.
Bangor Daily News