“$80 Billion for War in ‘05”: among the tidbits in this story is that the new American embassy in Baghdad will cost at least $1.5 billion. I say “at least” because cost projections that large inevitably run over. (Side note: the projected cost of the Iraqi War could run to $1.5 trillion. That’s more than freaking World War II.)
This is exactly the sort of thing that I hate about George W. Bush. Time was, conservatives were religious zealots but you knew that the size of the budget wouldn’t blossom too much. With a projected budget deficit of $427 billion, Bush is showing the tax-and-spenders a thing or two.
The good news is that he can’t run in 2008, so there’s an end in sight. Unfortunately, I have no idea what Republican would take his place: McCain is fiscally conservative but more pragmatic than I would like and Schwarzenegger is foreign-born. This rampant spending, though, has to be curbed.