Congressmen Grayson's Illustration of the Cost of War
by James Glaser
May 26, 2010

Here is all I know about the man. Alan Grayson is a federal Congressman from Florida, and he has an idea about what we should do with the money we are spending to fight our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. What is important about his idea is that it illustrates very well how much money we are really spending half way around the globe, where we are killing people.

War Is Making You Poor Act
May 21, 2010
Washington, DC

Congressman Alan Grayson (FL-08) introduced a landmark bill last night, called the "War Is Making You Poor Act". The bipartisan bill does three things:

1) It limits the amount of funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,
2) It eliminates the federal income tax on the first $35,000 of every American's income ($70,000 for married couples), and
3) It cuts the Federal deficit by $15.9 billion.

Congressman Grayson said, "All three of those things need to be done. This bill brings them all together."

The bill eliminates all federal income tax in 2011 for everyone making up to $35,000 a year ($70,000 for a married couple), which is approximately one-third of the population. For everyone, the first $35,000 that he or she earns each year ($70,000 for a married couple) is tax-free.

President Obama's Fiscal Year 2011 budget requests $549 billion for the Defense Department, plus another $159 billion in "emergency spending" for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Grayson's bill requires the wars be funded out of the $549 billion for DoD. It uses the $159 billion to eliminate federal income taxes for one-third of all Americans, and to reduce the deficit.

The bipartisan Joint Committee on Taxation checked Grayson's figures. It confirmed that the bill would, in fact, reduce the deficit by $15.9 billion, notwithstanding the deep cuts.

There is one flaw in Grayson's bill, and that is the fact that we are in debt now, and the money we would lower taxes with and pay down the deficit with would be borrowed money. This year alone we are borrowing over a trillion dollars just so Washington can make ends meet.

Wait, don't get me wrong. I like how Grayson shows us how much money $159 billion dollars is, but if we take that away from the Pentagon and give it to the tax payers, and pay down the deficit with 10% of it, we are no more ahead than if we spent it on our wars.

In fact, the money we would be paying down the deficit with would be just like getting a new credit card and transferring the balance from an old card to the new one. We will still have the same amount of debt, it would just be spread out further.

So, Congressman Grayson's cost of war illustration is good, no it is excellent—go read it again, but we would all be better off if we withheld that money from the Pentagon, and never spent in on anything. Yes, it would be nice to lower everyone's taxes, but we would just have to pay that money back in the future. Let's start biting the bullet now, and cut our military spending as a start.

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