Repubs waste $50 bn. in Iraq, but stiff Detroit

Informed Comment

Thoughts on the Middle East, History, and Religion

by Juan Cole

You know how the Republicans in the Senate refused to spend $30 billion to bring the US auto industry back from the brink?

It turns out that they were prefectly happy to waste $50 billion in taxpayer money on reconstruction boondoggles in Iraq on explicity partisan grounds. A veteran Republican lobbyist, says the NYT, explicitly appealed to the then head of the Office of Management and Budget:

"To delay getting our funds would be a political disaster for the President . . . His election will hang for a large part on show of progress in Iraq and without the funding this year, progress will grind to a halt."

So "a show of progress" in Iraq was just so Bush could get reelected in 2004?

 

http://www.juancole.com/2008/12/repubs-waste-100-bn-in-iraq-but-stiff.html