Talk about your big spenders: a $400 billion dollar Department of Defense budget for 2004 consumes more than 56% of all discretionary spending and 26 cents of every tax dollar. The $87 billion supplemental spending bill won by President Bush is more than the total deficits of all U.S. states and double the amount spent on Homeland Security. How is this money being spent, and why?

• 80 trucks at $33,000 each twice as much as a comparable pickup sold in the U.S.
  
• A four-week business course at $10,000 per Iraqi student almost three times as much as monthly tuition at Harvard Business School.
  
• Witness protection at $200,000 per person 20 times more than granted witnesses in the U.S. Federal Witness Protection program.
  
• In April, the U.S. Agency for International Development predicted the cost of war to taxpayers at $1.7 billion. Cost to taxpayers to date: nearly $5 billion a month

A situation in Iraq has been created by which the U.S. can’t simply withdraw. But war, occupation and reconstruction isn’t cheap. Though private contracts have long been used to cut costs, the Defense Department stands accused of awarding contracts to “friendly” companies, with Halliburton’s $2.3 billion in contracts as the most obvious example. Smart business or self-dealing?

• Almost one third of the $3.9 billion a month it costs to keep troops in Iraq goes to independent contractors. There is one private military contract personnel for every ten soldiers in Iraq.
  
• At least ten private military contract personnel have been killed and more injured during conflict in Iraq to date. Due to the status of companies as private entities, accurate figures are rarely found or reported.

Back at the ranch, unemployment grows while the promises of tax cuts wither on the vine. As opportunities vanish, many -- especially lower-income individuals -- look to military service for job training and advancement. But the Defense Department relies on contracts with private security corporations who hire overseas, limiting opportunities for soldiers. The military also relies increasingly on reservists, who have jobs waiting for them with no replacements, placing a strain on our communities due to their extended absences. Are we freezing out those who need jobs while overextending those who don’t?

• Since March 2001, the economy has shed 3.2 million jobs, a loss not seen since the Great Depression only 126,000 new jobs were generated in October.
  
• 170,000 new jobs a month are needed for population and workforce expansion.
  
• It takes 300,000 new jobs a month to lower the unemployment rate 1% a year.
  
• Early projections claimed tax cuts would create 344,000 new jobs a month, revised in October to 200,000 new jobs per month, or less than initial projection of job creation without the tax cut.

Is there a way to ease the burden on U.S. troops and the taxpayers without the assistance of other nations? Can the U.S. successfully reconstruct Iraq without the assistance of the UN and World Bank? Will $87,000,000,000 stabilize the region or create a financial boondoggle for buddies of the powers that be? How will the U.S. sustain both tax cuts and the largest reconstruction package since WWII?