AP: Bush Paper Details Iraq Spending Plan

[Gman]

<snip>
By ALAN FRAM, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - The administration wants $100 million for an Iraqi witness protection program, $290 million to hire, train and house thousands of firefighters, $9 million to modernize the postal service, including establishment of ZIP codes.

A Bush administration document, distributed to members of Congress and obtained by The Associated Press, goes far beyond the details officials have publicly provided for how they would spend the $20.3 billion they have requested for Iraqi reconstruction.

The 53 pages of justifications flesh out the size of the task of rebuilding the country, almost literally brick by brick. It also paints a painstaking picture of the damage Iraq (news - web sites) has suffered.

"The war and subsequent looting destroyed over 165 firehouses throughout the country. There are no tools or equipment in any firehouse," according to the report, written by the Coalition Provisional Authority, the U.S.-led organization now running Iraq.
</snip>

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&nci...

That leaves $67 billion for bribes.

[LEW]

1. This is obsene

and just heard on CNN that congress is set to give * the money. Unbelieveable, no wonder, and rightly so, * numbers are dropping. We cannot survive another year of this.....

[zekeson]

2. They did such a piss poor job of planning this affair

and had to go it alone. We could've had the UN in policing so that everything under the sun wasn't looted, but no, furious george had to play Cowboy and do it by hisself - now our own future is fucked, and our kids will have much less than we ever will. Welcome to a decline in the lving status of the US citizen - we gave it all to rebuild Iraq 'cuz the boy king fucked up.

[4dsc]

3. Yet no job creation in the US!!!

just amazing!!!

[The_Casual_Observer]

4. The idea was that there would be a free flow of Iraqi oil and

that somehow this would solve all the economic problems here, there and everywhere. They didn't consider the possibility that a certain seqment of the Iraqi populace wouldn't see it that way. Thus, no oil, no job creation , no reelection.

[TacticalPeek]

5. Congress should insist on at least one string tied to this boondoggle.

Detailed expense reports, names, dates and amounts; publicly available on the internet. GAO or whoever; what checks paid for what. The 'Your Money at Work' site.

Sunshine might cut at least a little into the obscene sweetheart deals and fraud that swarm around great mounds of money, like flies around mounds of that famous substance.

[radfringe]

7. sunshine?

the only way to get some sunshine on this is to rip out the overgrown "bushes" that are blocking the light

[Don_G]

6. Fund An Atrocity Museum And Zip Codes?

When he couldn't come up with $200 Mil for our police and firefighters? Cutting the military's pay and benefits?

Anyway, here's an AP link: http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGA8188IXKD.html