Wonder Where Your Tax Dollars Are Going?
Why, to schools and unfinished clinics in Iraq! Ellen Knickmeyer writes in The Washington Post of the fate of one of those contracts handed out for the rebuilding of Iraq:
A reconstruction contract for the building of 142 primary health centers across Iraq is running out of money, after two years and roughly $200 million, with no more than 20 clinics now expected to be completed, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says.The contract, awarded to U.S. construction giant Parsons Inc. in the flush, early days of reconstruction in Iraq, was expected to lay the foundation of a modern health care system for the country, putting quality medical care within reach of all Iraqis.
Parsons, according to the Corps, will walk away from more than 120 clinics that on average are two-thirds finished. Auditors say the project serves as a warning for other U.S. reconstruction efforts due to be completed this year.
Brig. Gen. William McCoy, the Army Corps commander overseeing reconstruction in Iraq, said he still hoped to complete all 142 clinics as promised and was seeking emergency funds from the U.S. military and foreign donors. "I'm fairly confident," McCoy said.
...By the end of 2006, the $18.4 billion that Washington has allocated for Iraq's reconstruction runs out. All remaining projects in the U.S. reconstruction program, including electricity, water, sewer, health care and the justice system, are due for completion. As a result, the next nine months are crunchtime for the easy-term contracts that were awarded to American contractors early on, before surging violence drove up security costs and idled workers.
...The Corps of Engineers says the campaign so far has renovated or built 3,000 schools, upgraded 13 hospitals and created hundreds of border forts and police stations. Major projects this summer, the Corps says, should noticeably improve electricity and other basic services, which have fallen below prewar levels despite the billions of dollars that the United States already has expended toward reconstruction here.
Billions of dollars to Iraq? Plus Bushie's tax handouts for the wealthy? Aren't you glad you didn't vote for some big-spending, nation-building Democrat?
I'm not happy with Bush, but I'd be less happy with Kerry in office.
Please explain this if tax cuts are so bad for the economy:
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2005/12/growth_in_feder.html
nash at April 4, 2006 7:40 AM
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