Democrats Issue Report that Just Happens to Support Campaign Strategy

The MSM is having a field day with this:

The total economic impact of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is estimated at $1.6 trillion by 2009, a congressional committee said in a report released Tuesday.

That is nearly double the $804 billion in direct war costs the White House requested so far from Congress, the Joint Economic Committee said.

Now, wars are expensive enterprises, but this report is as about as reliable as Governor Doyle’s word.  Let’s look at a few of the details:

The higher total economic impact comes from, among other things, the cost of borrowing money to pay for the war, lost productivity, higher oil prices and the cost of health care for veterans, the committee said.

Long term health care?  Lost productivity?  Oil prices?  These are things for which you can pull almost any number out of the air and make a convincing argument.  For example, let’s look at oil prices.  A lot of factors go into oil prices.  Uncertainty in the supply chain.  Demand.  Supply.  Extraction costs.  And on and on.  What precise part of the oil price is the unease in Iraq causing?  $5?  $1?  $20?  Who knows? 

Not to mention the fact that this was a report issued by the Democrat leadership and the Republicans were not allowed any input whatsoever.  I think this sums it up best:

Office of Budget and Management Director Jim Nussle dismissed the report, saying “the Congressional leadership is attempting to manipulate economic data for public relations purposes.”

“There are several ... distortions within the report, such as attempting to tie war costs to overall business investment and the price of oil.”

Exactly. 

This is not a report. 

It’s campaign literature.