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Views > March 25, 2008

Debt: Our 9 Trillion Pound Gorilla

By Susan J. Douglas

The human and financial costs of the Iraq War, the economy and Bush’s debt ought to be the mantra for Democrats running for Congress.

Who would have thought that we might ever miss Ross Perot?

Squawking at us with his graphs and pie charts about the dangers of deficit spending and the mounting national debt, Perot was especially outraged that the debt had gone from $1 trillion in 1980 to $4 trillion by 1992.

He got people’s attention about mortgaging our children’s futures and won 19 percent of the vote in the 1992 presidential race, the most for a third party candidate since Teddy Roosevelt in 1912. (This despite being featured on the cover of Weekly World News with space aliens.)

As we brace for the Swiftboating to come this summer, I find myself nostalgic for a Perot infomercial where he would make clear that my daughter, or my friend’s infant—all of us, as of now—each carries nearly $31,000 of this debt. And we don’t owe it only to each other.

We are in major hock to China, Japan and other foreign countries. Given the subprime disaster, rising unemployment, a reeling stock market, a teetering construction industry and considerable under-reported inflation—you know, all the markings of the “r” word—it is striking that the debt is not a major campaign issue for the Democrats.

Today the national debt is $9.2 trillion. And hardly anyone is talking about this. We’ve had rabbinical debates about healthcare and moronic charges and counter-charges about who’s ready “on day one” to be president. But the poor bastard who walks into the Oval Office next January will confront the $9 trillion-plus pound gorilla sitting in the room.

That gorilla has become obscenely engorged because of George W. Bush and his cronies. His stupefying $3.1 trillion budget proposed for 2009, with an 8 percent increase for the Pentagon and more than $400 billion in deficit spending, got minimal coverage, unveiled as it was on the eve of Super Tuesday, when 60 percent of the network news coverage focused on the campaign.

Almost immediately under Bush’s watch, the annual deficit—which each year gets piled onto our overall, accumulated debt—started soaring. A major contributor to this, of course, has been the occupation of Iraq. Remember when Donald Rumsfeld suggested the war would cost $50 billion to $60 billion? Remember when White House economic adviser Lawrence Lindsay projected the cost at more like $200 billion, and got canned? A recent estimate by Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard professor Linda Bilmes place the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan at $3 trillion. They actually count everything, not just the immediate day-to-day costs, but all of the indirect and deferred costs like healthcare and disability payments for veterans.

But even the crippling human and financial costs of the Iraq War have taken a back seat in presidential politics to “the economy”—as if the two are different subjects. They aren’t, and the Democrats, especially those running for Congress, should make this, and the Bush debt, their mantra. They would do well to make the kind of simple visual comparison columnist David Leonhardt recently did in the New York Times. Taking a more conservative approach to the war costs than Stiglitz and Bilmes, Leonhardt still came up with a price tag of $1.2 trillion.

What could Americans get instead for that money? How about universal preschool for all 3 year olds and 4 year olds, at the bargain price of $35 billion? How about universal healthcare, a rebuilding of the nation’s infrastructure, actually securing our ports as recommended by the 9/11 Commission, and a new “war” on poverty?

All of this and more have been denied the American people because of Bush’s borrow-and-spend war spree, coupled with his Marie Antoinette tax cuts. And the Bush debt imposes binding constraints on any desired initiatives of the next president, as Bill Clinton learned when he inherited the first Bush’s deficit pile-ups. In fiscal year 2006, the interest on the national debt was $406 billion; imagine pissing that away on your Visa bill.

Debt is the connective tissue between the disastrous war in Iraq, which most Americans consider a mistake (or worse), and the economy, which most Americans feel is in the toilet. “Borrow and Squander” or, if that’s too many syllables, “Borrow and Waste,” should be the mantra chanted at Republicans—especially those who claim to know little about the economy yet want to stay in Iraq (and other war zones, no doubt) for the next 100 years.

Susan J. Douglas is a professor of communications at the University of Michigan and author of The Mommy Myth: The Idealization of Motherhood and How it Has Undermined Women.

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  • Reader Comments

    Good question; why isn’t the national debt a topic of discussion on the campaign trail?  Maybe because its too damn depressing.  I feel like slashing my wrist at the thought of $31K personal debt, especially with interest added.  I filed chapter 7 in 1988 for $7K of unsecured debt but have kept my nose clean since then, but if the country files bankruptcy a judge can’t tell our creditors to just eat it.  America is headed for liquidation, receivership, garnishment, judgements and liens of and on public assets.  Meet the repo man and welcome to the U S of Asia.

    Posted by theloneous on Mar 25, 2008 at 9:20 AM

    This is why the Comptroller General of the Government Accountability Office recently resigned, so he can focus on more (less partisan) ways to get this message out. He’s been sounding the alarms for years now, but no one has been listening.

    Posted by Moose on Mar 25, 2008 at 11:29 AM

    “But even the crippling human and financial costs of the Iraq War have taken a back seat in presidential politics to “the economy”—as if the two are different subjects. They aren’t, and the Democrats, especially those running for Congress, should make this, and the Bush debt, their mantra.”

    Hey, where have you been? We’ve been heading down this path for a long time. The 1970s should have been an eye-opener.

    The only thing Perot had wrong was the sound effect — it’s been a slow hiiiisssss rather than a “Giant Sucking Sound.” I voted for him then because he was the only one with the brains (overlook the hair cut) and the honesty to tell it like it was. The Democrats are at least as responsible for the state of our economy as anyone.

    This didn’t originate with the Bush administration. It started long before and will continue as long as Americans are willing to accept what the financial “Experts” feed us. The current Fed action is killing the dollar and inflation is far higher than admitted.

    Government job data, inflation numbers, GDP — all are skewed to look better than reality. Yet people go merrily along borrowing and buying even when prices are telling them just how bad it real is. Today my car insurance went up 8.5% over last year. The car is a year older, the value has dived due to a saturated market, but the premium jumped — that is real life folks.

    Perot got to be a rich man by thinking for himself.  Today another very wealthy american was on CNBC saying we cannot afford to keep using all this foreign energy. He gave an astronomical figure — “...more than double the war expense” — in dollars we are sending out of the country for oil.

    As Moose wrote David Walker, Comptroller General just resigned in disgust because his warnings were totally ignored. I’ve heard him twice on C-SPAN in the past year — not a pretty picture.

    Where is the outrage at the scamming by D.C. and Wall St.?

    Posted by whattheheck on Mar 25, 2008 at 3:10 PM

    Socialists say the damnedest things. 

    You know, of course, that LBJ’s welfare program in the Great Society cost $6 trillion, and the only result was the near total destruction of Black family life in the United States.  Destruction of families and morality are principles of Marxism, and it worked just as you planned.  So what are you bitching about now?

    Posted by scorp on Mar 27, 2008 at 10:14 PM

    Dear scorp.Watchu talkin ‘bout ! The black families that I know are doing kinda ok.They are working hard,for the most part and would do better if the husbands(sperm donors) would get a job and help to raise the kids.Religion,hard work,and family are what black people are all about and they are strong today.
    Lack of jobs and money plague all of us blue collar workers today.Wether we be black or white or brown or yellow.Our jobs have been off-shored,our politicians are corrupt(democrats and republicans),Big Business is choking the working class,and our president is killing us,literally!We don’t live in a Marxist society.We live in an Oligarchy.If it weren’t for computer e-mails,blogs,and chats.We would have no voice at all,and “they” want to take that away from us and/or spy on what we say there.You do know,or maybe not,that there are interrment camps already in place in this country don’t you scorp.It is hard to find this out and only very seldom does it come out,but those camps are for protestors of government actions.The treasonous working class.Blackwater is not only in Iraq.It(blackwater) was used in New Orleans after Katrina.They(blackwater) are just honing their skills in Iraq for when they are needed in the U.S..Maybe I sound like some kind of wild eyed radical to you,but do yourself a favor and research and look around for the evidence.I am 60 years old and actually have a fear of my government.Something that I NEVER thought I would ever feel in this country.

    Posted by eddiemyboy1 on Mar 28, 2008 at 9:55 AM

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