Opinion: How to Receive Ultimate Economic Stimulus Package

Reach into your wallet. Check the balance of your checking account. Do you like what you see? How easy is it to pay off the bills or buy a house (and keep it) nowadays? Chances are, you aren’t feeling very optimistic about the economy right now. Recessions do seem to have that effect on people.

Most of us have grown up hearing that America is the richest and most powerful country in the world. So where is all that money? Well, most of it is over in a desert, 6,200 miles away from where King George Bush II sits on his throne. The folks over at NationalPriorities.org track where your money goes, and a few interactive tools reveal plenty about where we could easily find more money for our struggling economy.

For the tax money that Roanoke taxpayers alone have paid out for the Iraq war thus far, 15,542 scholarships for university students could have been provided or 34,968 people could have received health care. That’s $124.9 million so far from Roanoke taxpayers.
In fact, the largest portion of our federal income taxes went toward the military for the 2006 tax season, about 27 percent, while only 2 percent was spent on the environment, 5 percent on education, and a measly 3 percent was spent on veteran’s benefits. There’s definitely something wrong with all of that, but especially with spending so little on those affected most by the largest spending area. Sure, high-income bracket taxpayers pay more for the Iraq war, but low-income bracket taxpayers are hit hard too at the gas pump.

Can you even believe this is a real number — $507,847,070,000? That’s almost $508 billion spent so far on the war in Iraq, and the number continues to grow. The war costs on average so far $4,681 per household, $1,721 per person, and the U.S. pays out about $341.4 million each day to sustain its role as futile mediator in a religious civil war. Virginia alone has paid out about $13.7 billion worth of the war’s cost so far. If we had that money back, just think what a boost to the economy we’d have!

Our national debt right now is about $9.5 trillion and growing by an average of $1.71 billion each day, according to the Department of Treasury. This means each citizen’s share is roughly $31,106. Now these are a lot of big numbers (really big, gigantic, horrendous numbers), but stop — take a moment to actually think about how much money it really is.

How can people complain about the economy yet still support the war in Iraq? It’s obvious that these two problems go hand in hand. Let’s pull all of that money out of the sand and put it back into government programs, pay off the national deficit and put it back in the American people’s pockets — now that’s an economic stimulus package.

It’s not all about cash here though, folks. People are dying — young people with bright futures. Just think about the additional contributions to our country that would have been made by the 4,000 courageous men and women we’ve lost forever. This war is the defining event of the millennial generation’s time, as wars often are. It’s your friends and family members dying, your money and your country’s reputation being tarnished internationally. Let’s end the war together.

Joshua DeLung can be contacted at joshuadelung@gmail.com.