Lynn C. Woolsey: “today is April 15, Tax Day. Right now, millions of Americans are hurrying to report their incomes to the IRS. Usually…”

“today is April 15, Tax Day. Right now, millions of Americans are hurrying to report their incomes to the IRS. Usually, ``IRS'' stands for ``Internal Revenue Service,'' but today, it might as well stand for ``Iraq revenue suppliers'' because so much of our tax revenue is paying for the occupation of Iraq. Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel Prize winning economist, has calculated the occupation will cost at least $3 trillion. That means that the occupation will cost each of our 300 million citizens $10,000, or an incredible $40,000 for a family of four. America's hardworking families are struggling to keep their heads above water as we sink into a deep, what I call, Iraq recession. Yet, they're being asked to hand over $40,000, most of which goes to the foreign nations that are lending us the money to keep the occupation going. And that $40,000, Madam Speaker, will get much bigger if the occupation goes on for another few years, for 100 years as some cheerleaders for the occupation are discussing. What have we gotten for our occupation money? General Petraeus told us last week that the security situation in Iraq has gotten much better. But 19 of our incredibly brave soldiers died last week. And our top military leaders continue to warn us that our obsession with Iraq is breaking our military and that we may wake up one day to find that we can't meet a real threat to our national security.”