Deborah Koff Ross: “The 2007 Iraqi war funding, the total cost, $135.2 billion; the cost per month, $11.3 billion; the cost per day, $370…”

“The 2007 Iraqi war funding, the total cost, $135.2 billion; the cost per month, $11.3 billion; the cost per day, $370 million. That's about $16 million an hour. I helped dedicate and break ground on interstate I-530, which someday will connect I-30 and I-40 in Little Rock through Pine Bluff to I-69 in southeast Arkansas, which could create a economic revival in one of the poorest regions of the country, the delta region. In my speech in Pine Bluff yesterday I couldn't help but point out in the last transportation reauthorization bill there was about $6 billion for new interstate construction for all of America for the next 5 years. That's about the amount we will spend in Iraq in the next 2 weeks. Don't get me wrong, let me make it very clear, as long as we have troops in harm's way, I am going to support them and make sure we support them as a Nation in providing them the very best that money can buy and the technology and the equipment they need to do their job as safely as possible and return home to their families. We have to ask ourselves at some point, $16 million an hour going to Iraq means $16 million an hour we don't have to invest in our communities in America, that we don't have to invest in education and homeland security and veterans benefits, and the list is endless.”