($2 Billion Dollars Per Day) Cost of Katrina to hit budget hard

[truthpusher]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-09-13-katrina-spending_x.htm

Cost of Katrina to hit budget hard
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By Mark Trumbull, The Christian Science Monitor
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Think of it as the financial equivalent of another Iraq war.

Relief efforts for the storm-ravaged Gulf Coast throw a huge fiscal burden onto a U.S. Treasury that is already deep in the red.

Spending tied to hurricane Katrina has hit as much as $2 billion per day, or about 10 times the amount the United States is spending on military operations in Iraq. The pace will slow, but the recovery effort could easily cost the federal government $150 billion, experts say. Spread over a couple of years, that would roughly match the $6 billion a month being spent in Iraq.

As staggering as these numbers are, the question is not whether America can absorb this shock but whether it will alter the mind-sets of policymakers and financiers on other budget matters.

Already, for example, some U.S. lawmakers cite the storm as a reason to reconsider plans to cut entitlement programs, which would shrink government assistance to the poor by $35 billion over five years. At the least, the looming tab for everything from road repairs to business loans is a reminder that America's current budgetary path is not sustainable.

(snip)

COMPLETE STORY: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-09-13-katrina-spending_x.htm

[firefox]

1. Will we be $8 trillion in debt before September 30th

The fiscal year-end of the government is September 30th. With the Katrina hit the federal debt should cross over the $8 trillion mark before that year ends.

Federal debt clock- http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/ -has the debt at $7.959 trillion now. The federal debt was $5.7 trillion when WarCriminal took office- http://wampum.wabanaki.net/archives/001427.html

[Merlot]

2. We'll be out of debt in no time...just cut all entitlement programs!

Can't you hear it now? repubs saying that we can no longer afford school lunch programs for poor kids because of Katrina. I expect Katrina will be the excuse to cut all social programs, entitlement programs, and any other programs right up to and including social security.

You know they'll try.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

3. They already are.

Republican conservatives who champion tax relief are opposed to any talk of abandoning tax cuts and instead are vowing to press ahead with spending cuts to curb the federal deficit. Some have threatened to oppose additional requests for more aid to hurricane victims unless the Bush administration and Congress begin to find ways to offset spending.

http://www.voanews.com/english/2005-09-09-voa56.cfm