A cashier at a Travelex Bureau de Change counts U.S. Dollars in exchange for British pounds in London. (PHOTO CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES)
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
The growing cost of the Iraq war is one of the main reasons our economy is struggling.
Congressman John Yarmuth of Kentucky said in the Democrat's weekly radio address that the Iraq war, now in its sixth year, has cost the U.S. more than half a trillion dollars. Yarmuth says the conflict is quote "not only linked to our economic skid, but is a leading cause of it." He highlighted the crumbling infrastructure here at home while taxpayers fund an Iraqi government quote "riddled with waste, fraud and corruption."
A recent poll found 71% of Americans think that our spending on the war is a reason for our economic problems.
Meanwhile, a piece in today's New York Times looks at where else the U.S. could spend the estimated $1 to $3 trillion the war in Iraq could end up costing.
At the low end of the estimates of about 120 billion dollars a year... the money would pay for the projected cost of Hillary Clinton's universal health care plan. Or it could pay for Barack Obama's health care plan and his proposed bailout of homeowners submerged in the mortgage crisis. Or, it could pay for developing new renewable energy sources to get us off Mideast oil and a national public works program. Or, it could go toward a long-term fix for Social Security... or the unpaid part of Medicare… and on and on and on. Instead it's being used to finance a war that is going nowhere.
Here’s my question to you: How much is the Iraq war to blame for the state of the U.S. economy?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/04/14/art.ivoted.gi.jpg caption=]
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
The tsunami of voters to the polls looks like it will continue to sweep through states like Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Indiana.
In fact, more than a half a million people are either newly registered or have switched their registrations so they can weigh in on the Democratic primaries in those 3 states.
This shouldn't come as much of a surprise when you consider the tremendous interest generated by the race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Record voter registration and turnouts – particularly on the Democratic side – are what we've been seeing all along since the Iowa caucuses.
In Pennsylvania, where only registered Democrats can vote next Tuesday, more than 300,000 people have completed new registrations or switched to vote Democrat since the first of the year.
North Carolina, whose May 6th primary is open to Democrats and unaffiliated voters, has at least 122,000 people who are newly registered. And there could be even more new voters since a "same-day registration" law there lets people register and vote early between April 17th and May 3rd.
As for Indiana, its primary also on May 6th is open to all voters, and about 150,000 new ones have signed up since January 1st.
One expert on voting trends tells The Boston Globe that all this interest in the primary season quote "is an indication that we're going to see a very high turnout rate in the general election, perhaps as high as we haven't seen in a century in American politics."
But others question whether all the excitement will last and if new voters will remain engaged in politics after this presidential election.
Here’s my question to you: How does your interest in the 2008 elections compare to past elections?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Recent Comments