Cost of Iraq War hitting right here at home

Cost of Iraq War hitting right here at home

Everyone knows that aircraft carriers, tanks, helicopters and other killing apparatus cost, and keep costing, the federal taxpayers billions of dollars in taxes. What is much less appreciated is that those weapons of war soak up federal aid to municipalities as well, impacting state and local taxes, keeping real wages low, and by skewing spending priorities, reduce the quality of life and extract money from every Rochester resident’s pocketbook and purse.

By Harry Davis

Everyone knows that aircraft carriers, tanks, helicopters and other killing apparatus cost, and keep costing, the federal taxpayers billions of dollars in taxes. What is much less appreciated is that those weapons of war soak up federal aid to municipalities as well, impacting state and local taxes, keeping real wages low, and by skewing spending priorities, reduce the quality of life and extract money from every Rochester resident’s pocketbook and purse.

If the federal government wasn’t pouring our federal income taxes into such ruthless enterprises as the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, inner city housing, schools, streets and other facilities wouldn’t be in such a sorry state of repair. Income taxes would very likely be lower, and the federal government would be able to share its tax revenues much more favorably with localities and with States. Not only would local taxes be lower, but both the City of Rochester and County of Monroe would be able to finance sorely-needed projects like a rationally-sited downtown bus terminal, housing, parks, streets, libraries, and infrastructure. If political payoffs weren’t being made to Vice President Cheney’s former companies, local taxes as well as state and national taxes most likely wouldn’t keep spiraling as steeply--at least not as steeply as they have been since President Bush and his sidekick began paying off a few companies which contribute to Presidential campaigns.

These observations are clearly not mine alone. Two years ago, before President Bush asked Congress to declare war, scores of localities across the country adopted resolutions cautioning him and predicting the deleterious impact on localities of a long and expensive war. Months before the Iraq war started, for example, the Rochester City Council sent President Bush a letter unanimously warning about the huge and continuing cost of war. A resolution sponsored by Democratic County Legislators Bill Benet and Stephanie Aldersly did the same in the Monroe County Legislature.

In making the rounds during my campaign for the Democratic nomination for City Council at large, I have been mentioning this issue. Although not often offered widely, the matter clearly irritates many Rochester voters who oppose the human and material costs of the never-ending enterprise on both Americans and Iraqis. That’s why municipalities, following their perceptive warnings to the President before the war, shouldn’t let down now; their elected officials and taxpayers must continue to closely track and oppose this unneeded and immoral war as it moves into another year. In addition to the human toll it continues to exact hundreds of thousands of miles away, it is doing untold financial and moral danger here right here at home.

So far as I know, I am the only candidate currently running who has raised this issue. I hope to continue this in the months ahead and ask all those who agree with me to show their support for me and all likeminded candidates in the November election. (Davis is a Democratic Candidate for an at Large seat on the Rochester City Council. For over three months, Harry Davis, a Rochester native has been talking to, and listening to voters in his campaign for an at-large seat on the Rochester City Council www.harry-davis.com ).