Presidential FlimFlam & Deception
In his Oval Office speech on Iraq President Obama Obama gave us a preview of the one of the Democrats’ deceptive campaign themes for the fall Congressional elections:
Unfortunately, over the last decade, we have not done what is necessary to shore up the foundation of our own prosperity. We have spent over a trillion dollars at war, often financed by borrowing from overseas. This, in turn, has short-changed investments in our own people, and contributed to record deficits.
Other Democrats have also tried to deceive voters into believing that the the Iraq operation was the largest expenditure of the past few years and the primary cause of the enormous, unprecedented deficits of 2009 and 2010.
But the truth contradicts the President and the Democrats.
According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) a trillion dollars includes the cost of Afghanistan, which Obama has always said was the legitimate, necessary war. So far, according to CBO, the Iraq operation has cost $750 Billion since the invasion in 2003, or an average of $107 Billion per year. 
$107 Billion is of course a lot of money. But it isn’t nearly enough to justify Obama’s insinuation that war spending crowded other priorities out of the budget. Sad but true, $107 Billion is but a tiny portion of the federal budget.
Obama claimed $1 Trillion in war spending over seven years had “short-changed investments in our own people,” But the numbers don’t support his assertion. Each year the Office of Management and Budget adds up “investments in our own people” and issues a report called “Payments for Individuals.” These payments include:
- Medical programs
- Housing subsidies
- Food stamps and nutritional assistance
- Education grants, loans and training programs
- Medicare
- Income security programs
- Social Security
- Veterans benefits
The payments-for-individuals category does not include salaries paid to the military or to federal employees. It does not include fees paid to contractors who do work for the government.
From October, 2001, when the war on terror began with the invasion of Afghanistan, through September, 2010 Payments for Individuals (“investments in our own people”) total $15 Trillion, compared to about $1 Trillion for Iraq and Afghanistan.
This last chart compares payments for individuals with total military spending and all other spending for the current budget year. The actual data demonstrates that Obama’s claim is preposterous.
