Relative Costs

I love all the complaints about Wisconsin Governor Doyle, President Obama and other Democrats getting us into debt. Not surprising there is no mention about the debt resulting from the Iraq war. Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel prize-winning economist has calculated that Bush's disastrous and illegal aggression will end up costing US taxpayers between 3-4 TRILLION dollars. The neocons hid a lot of the real cost by funding that war "off the books." Where were all the Tea Baggers when they had a chance to oppose that colossal expenditure back in 2002-2003? Notably silent, that's where. By the way, the deficit during George W. Bush's last year in office was just a little less than the $1.6 trillion deficit for this fiscal year. Barack Obama's administration has actually inherited some of this red tape from the catastrophic "Bush Administration." But I digress. And I don't excuse Obama from charges of reckless spending; this years Penatgon budget weighs in at a whopping $708 billion. What a waste! What a travesty!

As far as the high-speed rail project is concerned, the projected cost will be a little more than $800 million. About a third of the cost of the 894/Zoo Freeway reconstruction in Milwaukee. The price tag for that boondoggle, to use the language of the high speed naysayers, is projected to be $2.3 billion, according to a 2009 report in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. But I suppose endless subsidies for the construction and oil industries don't count as a waste of the taxpayers' money, eh? Even though all these freeways will have to be rebuilt in what, 15 years?

At least the high speed rail project is intended to serve a useful purpose and will create some jobs. In that respect, it's quite different from massively exorbitant wars waged endlessly by Republicans and Democrats. And if some of the automobile-addicted public in this region would have the decency to ride the train instead of drive themselves to distraction every time they travel to Milwaukee or Chicago, there would be a lot less need for subsidies of any kind.