President Bush's budget request on Monday included a line item of $145.2 billion for the war in Iraq. Instead of spending this money on Iraq, here is a list of just some of the things we could have spent that $145 billion dollars on instead.

Free health insurance for every uninsured family: $124 Billion
Free gasoline every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday all year long: $116 Billion
Free tuition, room, and board for every student enrolled in a public university or college: $115 Billion
Free laptop for every student from Kindergarden to Graduate School: $86 Billion
Convert every registered car to run on ethanol: $68 Billion
Primary education for every child on Earth: $30 Billion
Universal Access to water and sanitation for everyone on Earth: $21 Billion
End hunger in America: $7 Billion

Unfortunately we don't have the want or time to pleasure ourselves with such "luxuries" as free health insurance or an end to hunger. We're in the middle of a war. ::riiight::

Thoughts?

When Bush was first elected I thought he was ok. Now he's just being stubborn and won't back out the the hole he got America into. Can you say 39% approval? (Source)

Any of those things would be terrific. I would worry about America now, not the rest of the world.

39%? He wishes. That was back in 2005. As of January 22, 2007, his approval ratings are 28%, a new all-time low. Nixon had 39% during the Watergate scandal. Bush has 28% now.

Source: Link.

I'm going to be the unpopular one here, as the conservative capitalist, but many of those ideas are purely Socialist in nature. Free Healthcare...uhm...can we say a tax rate of about 45% of our income? Same with the free college tutition.

Now, looking at what the money WAS spent on, thats fine...however, you can't say "Well it woulda been nice to have these things" when our national debt is now over 4 trillion dollars. Lets work on paying that back...then worry about becoming socialist =)

You're throwing around the word "socialist" as if it's an insult. :P I see no way in which these ideas are socialistic in nature.

Notice how all your sources are coming from liberal sources. Oh, wait all media is run by liberals now days.

I have a problem with programs like Welfare, Affirmative Action, "Free Healthcare". If you can't afford it, why should MY money pay for it? Everyone should be educated enough in our society (We do offer FREE education) to compete for a spot at a university. If you don't do that its your own fault. I don't believe that I should have to pay for you if you dick around with your life.

Thats why I'm not a fan of socialism.

Thank god I live in Canada where we didn't have to deal with the war as much as American's.

I personally think Bush should of spent the money elsewhere, rather then fight yet another war.

What liberal media? Last I checked, almost all of the media outlets were rampant with conservative bias. I've yet to see NBC or even CNN agree with certain aspects of liberal thought.

You also act as if a liberal source is automatically an invalid one, which is an entirely incorrect assumption. Personally, I believe if a news source is reliable as long as it reports the news in a correct fashion. Unfortunately, this is quite true information; the $145 billion dollars used to fuel the War in Iraq (no pun intended) could have been used to fund better services in the United States, even under non-"socialistic" (as one put it in this thread) principles. We could have used it to better the absolutely terrible education system in the United States which at the moment is insulting; the No Child Left Behind program is not working at all, and children are still being taugt at extremely slow rates.

I think $145 billion dollars is a small price to pay for what the soilders are doing out there, i think at some point it has to be done, the people over there should not live in fear, and you should be proud as a country to know that your men and women and fighting for there rights.

I beg to differ. Right now, Iraq is no where near safe and righteous... currently, three factions of Islam are fighting each other ruthlessly without remorse. Even with the U.S. "moderating," the conflict will not reach a solution soon. In fact, the American soldiers are augmenting the problem; from what I have received, the military is treating many of the civilians of Iraq like dirt. I do not wish to attack the military, as it is not their fault for having had to fight in the most vestigial war since Vietnam, but with the current state of idiocy in the United States, Iraq is no where near being stable.

MrsSim, i understand what you are saying, but from my point of view people of iraq have not helped them selves of the past decade and it was time for other contrys to go in and sort stuff out for the future, In my eyes if those people dont comply with how the british or american soilders are sorting it out then, they dont deserve the help, time or money we are WASTING out there. The people dont seem or what to see when they are being help, if they dont they i would pull the soilders out, and let them kill there selves. the country makes me so mad!

BIG PROBLEM: Who says that the government is supposed to stop hunger in America? If the government were to do all this then what is the need for Civil Services? Civil Services are for doing things suchs as mentioned above (not all though). People depend on the government too much. Plus, why is the governemtn stealing my (my parent's) money and then using it to give to homeless and all. I would much rather give money to them personally.

If you give them the money you think that they will really try hard? No! Human nature by default is lazy. And if you just give them the oppourtunity to be lazy they will. America's economy will fail in the future. We will have lazy workers that all depend on the government. The government will take over and then it will be similar to a dictatorship. The more you let the government give to you the more of your freedom you must give the goverment.

The money would of been a better idea if we actually where in there to fight and not just try to help out. This all leads back should of we ever gone in the first place, which for Iraq is a NO. But if there was no war, what would Bush really spent it on. Probably nothing, like most Presidents. You would of never heard of this money the whole time he was in office. Yea maybe he would of spent some of it, but that amount, no.

wow i would of avoided war and keep the money for people who need it, if i were president id give the money to the needy and ask iraq to step the f*** off.