$200,000 a minute

That's the current cost of the Iraq war, as quoted by Bob Sheiffer of Face the Nation on Sunday. It astounds him and it astounds all Americans I am sure. The question I have is what is America getting for this amount of money? Incredibly, a recent audit found that only 42% of a major contractor's projects in Iraq have been completed.

"The cost for unfinished efforts was high: the US government approved a total of US$180 million in payments for Bechtel’s ten allegedly unfinished projects. They include a US$24 million water treatment plant in Baghdad's impoverished Sadr City, a US$26 million children's hospital in Basra and a US$4 million Baghdad landfill that was never built"
http://www.bi-me.com/main.php?id=11956&t=1&c=33&cg=4

If that is not enough, there has been careless contract monitoring and supervision. Bob Shieffer reported that a recently completed water plant was shut down because a $90 million turbine was ruined due to an unqualified worker using the wrong fuel.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/07/29/opinion/schieffer/main3108184.shtml

The headline this morning is that there are 8 million people in Iraq that are in "urgent need of water, food and shelter" And 70% are without adequate water supplies...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20031683/

Meanwhile, back in the United States, President Bush is likely to veto a bill increasing funds for children's health insurance for those who make too much to qualify for medicaid. The revenue would be obtained by increasing the federal excise tax on cigarettes by 61 cents.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/07/14/national/w200608D60.DTL&type=politics

The majority of American people, I believe, have stated that they want improvement in the health care system and they want an end to the cost in dollars and lives in Iraq. We can only hope the next administration will listen.