Cost of the Iraq War vs. the Cost of Obama

Democrats plan to campaign against George W. Bush this fall, and their primary weapon of attack is going to be the cost of the Iraq War and how it decimated the economy. Good luck with that one. Mark Tapscott offers some perspective. The meme is simple: The economy is in a shambles because of Bush's economic policies and his war in Iraq. As American Thinker's Randall Hoven points out, that's the message being peddled by lefties as diverse as former Clinton political strategist James Carville, economist Joseph Stiglitz, and The Nation's Washington editor, Christopher Hayes. The key point in the mantra is an alleged $3 trillion cost for the war. Well, it was expensive to be sure, in both blood and treasure, but, as Hoven notes, the CBO puts the total cost at $709 billion. To put that figure in the proper context of overall spending since the war began in 2003, Hoven provides this handy CBO chart showing the portion of the annual deficit attributable to the conflict:

In fact, the first two years of Obama's stimulus cost more than the entire Iraq War.