

(By Dar Yasin/Associated Press)

That’s a big number, but it’s only 4 percent of the president’s budget request for 2011, which totals $3.8 trillion. It’s only about 10 percent of the budget deficit projected for 2011. And it’s less than half of the $375 billion that the Joint Committee on Taxation projects the tax deal will cost us this year. So big as it is, it’s fairly small in terms of the total budget.

Which isn’t to say it doesn’t matter. When all is said and done, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will cost us trillions of dollars, and even if they’re not the, or even a, primary cause of our deficits (though they bear more blame if you believe Joseph Stiglitz’s story about their role in the lax monetary policy that contributed to the credit bubble), that’s still a lot of money that could’ve been better invested here at home. But the numbers are what the numbers are: Costly as the wars have been, they’re not what’s standing between us and a balanced budget.