The Reflector

America sits on the edge of its seat to watch the economy spiral into grave recession. The stock market is falling, the cost of living is increasing and our national debt is so high into the trillions, we literally can't count it anymore. Meanwhile, Congress holds hearings about AIG executives who went on a $440,000 one-week vacation after receiving an $85 billion government bailout.

Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, D-Md., was at the hearing and screamed into the microphone at the two AIG executives at the meeting.

"They were getting their manicures, their pedicures, massages, their facials while the American people were paying their bills," he said.

The vacation has been called an insult to the American taxpayer. Wasting $440,000 is surely unacceptable. The horror! The horror!

While the vacation cost a lot of money, what about all the money wasted by U.S. politicians, an amount that far exceeds a measly $440,000?

For only one example, take a look at the cost of the Iraq war. In a March 9 editorial column in The Washington Post by Linda J. Bilmes and Joseph E. Stiglitz, Harvard University and Columbia University professors respectively, the total cost of the Iraq war was estimated to be in excess of $3 trillion. Lower estimates from the Bush administration and others, the article claimed, do not account for the costs of refurbishing our military and other expenses that aren't "upfront." The Iraq war costs $12 billion a month. And none of this takes into account U.S. endeavors in Afghanistan or any other unnecessary U.S. interventions.

This semester, I am taking a Hispanic civilization class that has opened my eyes to the array of interests we have undertaken in Latin America. Throughout the 20th century, we have intervened in countless Latin American nations to fight the Cold War against communist regimes or simply to gain some financial interests. We have given millions of dollars to different political campaigns to promote "democracy." Under the Reagan Doctrine, we gave $19 million in military aid to the Contras of Nicaragua.

I won't be an absolutist and say U.S. intervention is always bad. However, the pure financial costs tally up after a while. Our nation could have done a lot with that $3 trillion, which could perhaps have gone to relieving almost a fourth of our national debt.

What have we won in Vietnam or Iraq? What is so important about toppling Saddam Hussein? If we had an extra $3 trillion lying around right now, we would be jumping for joy. Instead, we're fighting a bunch of dumb radicals in caves while our economy plummets.

All of these reasons are why I look down on politicians who point fingers or try to make Wall Street executives look worse than themselves. They're both evil, quite frankly. And it really doesn't matter that the Democrats tweaked the bailout bill to include "the taxpayer on Main Street" in order to appear like the people's party. The real problems on a larger scale aren't being fixed.

Matt Watson is the opinion editor of The Reflector. He can be contacted at opinion@reflector.msstate.edu.

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