pinky-wink
Friday, August 25, 2006
Is 66,000,000 a lucky number?
Gordy over at IlliniPundit is busy declaring things improved over in Iraq. Apparently a poll came out showing that Iraqis think there shouldn't be a Civil War. And ... well ... that's really all there is.

Meanwhile, the National Priorities Project came out with some interesting statistics recently. Apparently the Iraq War has now cost the American taxpayers $318,500,000,000. Locally, Champaign County's contribution to the war totals $66,000,000. The population of Champaign County is 184,905. Busting out the ole calculator shows that each person in Champaign County has contributed $356 of tax dollars to the war effort. The average for a househould is $828.

Of course this is just an average. Nationally the situation looks worse.
That is $2,844 for every American household or $1,075 for every American. The money (already spent or allocated) is being spent at a rate $10 million per hour and $244 million per day.
And what could this great nation have bought with that $318 billion? Using this handy chart, it seems the State of Illinois could have:
  • Hired 285,812 additional public school teachers for one year.
  • Insured 9,875,579 children for one year.
  • Provided 799,506 students four-year scholarships at public universities.
  • Built 148,497 additional housing units.
But hey ... at least the Iraqis feel like they'd rather not have a Civil War. That was worth it. Right?

In other news, Dr. David Gill is still running for Tim Johnson's seat. Dr. Gill has made clear that he does not support the war, and actually has a plan to get us out of there. Mr. Johnson has, well, not really spoken about the issue for some time (that I could find). He did vote yes on declaring Iraq part of War on Terror with no exit date. (Jun 2006).

The choice is clear.

11 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

So what is Gill's plan to leave Iraq?

8/28/2006 10:52 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

what do you think? its cut and run...

8/28/2006 11:13 PM  
Blogger Pinky Winky said...

This is from Gill's website:

We need to significantly decrease the American military presence and simultaneously get the Iraqi government to speed up the deployment and training of their troops. To assure that Iraqis have complete sovereignty, they must also have complete control over the future of their oil reserves. Until such a united front is in place, the remaining U.S. forces should adopt the least provocative posture, consistent with self-defense. The Iraqi people are not, and never were, our enemy.

Any country must have a large middle class to create and sustain a thriving democracy. The Marshall Plan is an excellent model for how we can help repair the material damage of war. We must help the Iraqis rebuild their factories, their refineries, and their means of construction, so that they can restore their infrastructure and rebuild their schools. This would in turn help create jobs. Instead of giving corporations and private contractors blank checks, we should focus on encouraging the entrepreneurial spirit of the Iraqi people.


Not bad. It's a good site - lots of great information and even a message board.

Does Tim Johnson even have a campaign site? I can't remember ...

8/29/2006 11:00 AM  
Blogger Xian Franzinger Barrett said...

Gill is completely awesome. That he hasn't gotten elected so far is a testament to the power of encumbence and partisanship.

All the interactions I have had with the man (which were basically him out and about and deciding to talk to and be nice to random people) left me impressed. I love the way he uses his professional expertise to design action plans for the health care area.

From what I can tell, he is a gift to the area, I hope you all will utilize him well.

8/29/2006 1:04 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

What is Gill's legislative record so we have an idea what to expect?

8/31/2006 11:26 PM  
Blogger Xian Franzinger Barrett said...

Well, he has an extensive record of being an amazing human being.

Here is his bio page from Vote Smart.

9/01/2006 12:56 AM  
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