The wages of war? No sweat

Houston, we have a problem.
And Dubya has finally owned up to it. The economy is not so good, folks. We’re making less money, paying more for everything from soup to gas, Wall Street has the flu and folks all over the country are losing their homes.
In an interview with NBC, George W. denied there is any connection between the Iraq War and the faltering economy. Zero. Zip. Nada. We can afford our little war — shoot! — it’s only costing us somewhere between $2-3 billion a week. That’s not so bad, is it? At that rate we’re only paying $432 million a day. $18 million an hour. For a country as rich as we are, that’s practically pocket change.
When confronted with the cost of the war, Dubya grins that sweet, wacky grin of his, cocks his knotty little head and says, “I think actually the spending in the war might help with jobs...because we’re buying equipment...and people are working...” Which begs the question: “Huh?” Anyone you know made any war equipment lately? Opened a war equipment shop on Main Street? Own a piece of Halliburton?
No matter. Dubya has it all figured out. “I think the economy is down,” he says, “because we built too many houses...” The failing economy, he goes on, is only “adjusting” to all those houses we built. Silly us. This from the president who said “Thanks to our policies, home ownership in America is at an all time high.” (September, 2004) and “We’re creating...an ownership society in this country, where more Americans than ever will be able to open their door where they live and say ‘Welcome to my house, welcome to my piece of property.’” (October, 2004) It’s enough to make you misty-eyed, ain’t it?
A Bush spokesman said that long after folks (like us) forget all about Baghdad and Abu Ghraib, this president’s legacy will be the Great Ownership Society. George W. is, after all, the architect of the Home Buying Surge in America. He does enjoy a good surge. How did he do it? Well, one way was to push the “easy home ownership” doctrine. Bush urged the private sector to “unlock millions of dollars” for the purchase of homes. He wanted poor folks to have homes, too. And that’s a grand idea. Let’s go after ‘em. But his “easy” way was the free market, who-needs-regulations-when-there’s-quick-money-to-be-made method, and predatory lenders of all stripes came out of the woodwork, advertised to a fare-thee-well,and lured folks with little money to buy bigger and better houses than they’d ever dreamed possible — because the easy money’s right here for ya! These scam artists fast-talked right past the poor folks’ subprime pitfall featuring mortgage payments that could double or triple over time. So folks who could just barely afford the payments on the houses they bought found themselves stuck with payments they couldn’t possibly afford later on. Imagine buying in at, say, $800 a month. Say you keep the same job (remember, wages aren’t going up by much) and, two years later, your payment is $1,600. Three years later? $2,400. You’re in foreclosure before you can say “Honey, find me the phone number of that fella we borrowed from — ”
If you do try to find that fella, well, it won’t help, because your home loan has been sold and resold to so many mortgage companies you can’t find it to save your life. Or your house. And it’s your fault the economy is going belly-up.
Ask Dubya. The $18 million an hour occupation of Iraq has nothing to do with it.

By Linda Hansen