It's past time for Iraq to pay for reconstruction
August 18, 2008, For nearly 30 years, the 400 homes in the Cumberland Cove development in Putnam and Cumberland counties have tried to get water from their wells. Unfortunately, the wells were often dry, or the water was not drinkable. Last week, the families got welcome news. The U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development announced the City of Crossville would receive over $2 million in the form of a federal loan and grant to provide water service to Cumberland Cove.
In the Diyala Province in Iraq, much of the water infrastructure has been damaged from two years of insurgent activity and violence. The Iraqi government is responding to their needs by clearing canals, digging wells and building irrigation systems – with money from U.S. taxpayers.
The City of Crossville is expected to repay, with interest, most of the $2 million they received in federal funds. We should expect no less from Iraq.
Since 2003, the U.S. has spent nearly $50 billion toward rebuilding Iraq. Now, Iraq has a budget surplus of $79 billion, much of it coming from selling $140 per barrel oil to U.S. consumers.
Even more ironic, the U.S. is paying interest on some of the Iraqi surplus. A portion of the surplus, over $10 billion, is sitting at the Federal Reserve Bank in New York. The U.S. will make nearly $436 million in interest payments on this deposit to Iraq by the end of the year. The money was deposited in the Federal Reserve Bank when banking in Iraq was not possible and was supposed to be used for Iraqi development.
I have long held that Iraq should finance its reconstruction. The $50 billion the U.S. has spent there could go toward helping other families in rural Tennessee receive water or lowering our $9.6 trillion national debt. Iraq could easily repay the U.S. from the $100 billion in oil revenue expected over the next year.
Something is wrong when the City of Crossville must repay the federal government for money loaned for a water project, and Iraq cannot or will not repay us for work done in the Diyala Province and elsewhere.
