John Murtha’s Letter to Democrats

Dear Democratic Colleague, We are spending $8 billion a month in Iraq. That equates to 2 billion dollars a week, or 267 million dollars a day, or 11 million dollars AN HOUR. Attached are some comparisons between what we are spending in Iraq as we "stay the course" indefinitely and what those funds could be used for instead. I've been fighting for our military to get out of Iraq because I'm concerned about the loss of our troops and the future of our military and also because I believe they have accomplished their mission there and the Iraqis must resolve their internal conflict themselves. However, I also wanted to demonstrate what these expenses mean to domestic policy in the United States and give you an idea of just some of the things that what we could accomplish with this amount of money. Sincerely, JOHN P. MURTHA Member of Congress NATIONAL SECURITY $33.1 billion/yr Department of Homeland Security FY 07 budget (4 months in Iraq) $10 billion (1-time) Equipping commercial airliners with defenses against shoulder fired missiles (5 weeks in Iraq) $8.6 billion/7 years Shortage of international aid needed to rebuild Afghanistan (one month in Iraq) $5.2 billion (1-time) estimated need for capital improvements to secure public transportation system (trains, subways, buses) (3 weeks in Iraq) $1.5 billion/year Radiation detectors needed at all US ports (rejected due to cost) (5 days in Iraq) $1.4 billion/ year Double the COPS (community police grants) program (5 days in Iraq) $800 million/year public transportation personnel training and technical support (72 hours in Iraq) $700 million/year 100% screening of all air cargo - rejected because of cost (1/4 of domestic shipping and 1/2 of international shipping is done on passenger planes) (2 days in Iraq) $350 million (1-time) Make emergency radio systems interoperable (recommended after 9/11 but hasn't happened yet) (1.2 days in Iraq) $500 million/year Double the firefighters grant program (2 days in Iraq) $94 million/year Restore cuts to cities hit on 9/11 in Homeland Security budget (8-1/2 hours in Iraq) HEALTH CARE/VETERANS $36 billion/5 years reduction for Medicare spending in President's FY 07 budget (4-1/2 months in Iraq) $5 billion/5 years Cut in Medicaid in President's FY 2007 budget (2-1/2 weeks in Iraq) $2.5 billion/5 years VA health care premium increases in this year's budget. Premiums will double and triple and drug co-payments will increase, costing our military retirees $2.4 billion over 5 years (9 days in Iraq) $100 million Additional funding recommended for mental health research for Veterans (9 hours in Iraq) $48 million Medical and prosthetic research for Veterans (half a day in Iraq) $65 million/yr National Institutes of Health research funding cuts in this year's budget (scientists are leaving the field of health research because funding has been cut so severely) (6 hours in Iraq) $15 billion/yr Provide health insurance to 9 million children with no health insurance (1-1/2 weeks in Iraq) $118 million/yr The Commodity Supplemental Food Program, which provides nutritional food packages for less than $20 a month to more than 400,000 elderly people - eliminated in the President's budget (12 hours in Iraq) EDUCATION $3.4 billion/yr Cut in education budget in President's FY 07 budget from FY 06 funding level (over 40 programs including drug-free schools, federal support for the arts, technology and parent-resource centers). (13 days in Iraq) $664 million/yr Perkins Loan program cut in President's FY 07 budget (would help 463,000 low-income students attend college) (2-1/2 days in Iraq) $99 million/yr Even Start (eliminated in President's budget) (9 hours in Iraq) ENVIRONMENT/INFRASTRUCTURE $300 million¬ President's cut to EPA budget in FY 2007 (1 day, 3 hours in Iraq) $253 billion/30 years Clean up contaminated sites in US (Up to 350,000 contaminated sites will require cleanup over the next 30 years according to a report released by the EPA.) (2 years in Iraq) $9.11 billion National Park Service maintenance backlog (1 month, 10 days in Iraq) $6 billion Forest Service maintenance backlog (3 weeks in Iraq) $2 billion Fish and Wildlife Service maintenance backlog (2 weeks in Iraq) $47.2 billion/yr Miscellaneous user fees throughout government imposed by President's budget on taxpayers (6 months in Iraq) $1.7 billion/yr Grants to states cut in 2007 budget (1 week in Iraq) $15 million/yr Double the Save America's Treasures program (cut in half from last year's budget) (1.3 hours in Iraq) DEFENSE $6 billion Double the number of Navy ships we are buying in the 2007 bill ‚ from 6 ships to 12. (3 weeks in Iraq) $8 billion Double the number of total Air Force aircraft we are buying in this bill. That's right ‚ we could double the number of F-22s, Joint Strike Fighters, C-130's, Global Hawks and Predators we are buying. Or, we could double the number of Navy and Marine Corps aircraft we are buying, F-18s, V-22s, KC-130Js, and so on. (1 month in Iraq) --- via Tracy Van Slyke