Follow the Money?

You know the old saying "Follow the money." In the Bush administration, we can't even do that. The money is missing. Read today's Iraq blunder:


TODAY'S IRAQ BLUNDER:
Billions in Reconstruction Funds Missing
October 22, 2004

Roughly half of the $5 billion in reconstruction funds distributed by the U.S.-managed Development Fund for Iraq cannot be accounted for, according to an audit commissioned by the United Nations. Auditors documented numerous reconstruction projects for which U.S. authorities had either no contracts on file, no evidence that bids were obtained through competition, no purchase invoices, or no payment vouchers. More than $1 billion purportedly used to fund hundreds of large and small projects simply could not be tracked. An additional $1.4 billion was deposited into a local bank by Kurdish leaders, and though auditors were shown a deposit slip, they could find no additional records to explain how the money was used or to prove that it remains in the bank.

Would this be tolerated in the business world? No.

Let us tell Bush: Here's the road. Follow it back to Texas. And don't come back.



For positive and pragmatic alternatives to the administration's failed policies, visit the Center for American Progress.