Iraq financially prepared to pay for country's reconstruction: Report RAW STORY

Published: Tuesday August 5, 2008





Print This Email This Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and John Warner (R-Va.) announced Tuesday the release of a Government Accountability Office report on Iraq's oil revenues. It concludes that the Iraqi government, after several years of ramped-up oil revenues, is financially capable of shouldering the burden of the country's reconstruction. The report claims that between 2005 and 2007, the Iraqi government took in $96 billion, mostly on oil revenue. In 2008, the group estimates as much as $86 billion will pour into coffers, driven by the high costs of crude. In spite of these revenues, the United States treasury has paid in excess of $48 billion for reconstruction in the country, while the Iraqis have spent some $896 million. At the end of 2008, Iraq is expected to hold a budget surplus of roughly $52 billion; more than enough, says the report, to take up the mantle of rebuilding the shattered nation. "The Iraqi government now has tens of billions of dollars at its disposal to fund large scale reconstruction projects," said Sen. Levin in a Tuesday media advisory. "It is inexcusable for U.S. taxpayers to continue to foot the bill for projects the Iraqis are fully capable of funding themselves. "We should not be paying for Iraqi projects, while Iraqi oil revenues continue to pile up in the bank including outrageous profits from $4 a gallon gas prices in the U.S. We should require that U.S. taxpayers be reimbursed for the cost of large projects." "It is time for the sovereign government of Iraq, using its revenues, expenditures and surpluses, to fully assume the responsibility to provide essential services and improve the quality of life for the Iraqi people," added Sen. Warner in the release. READ THE REPORT (PDF link)