Economics 101

In the dismal science, opportunity costs are those "lost" or otherwise unrealized "profits" that might have been derived from investments we didn't make, surrendered to whatever profit or loss we can show from the investments we actually made. The phrase kept turning in my head as I reviewed elements of President Bush's proposed $2.9 trillion 2008 federal budget, particularly the $625 billion spending proposed for the Pentagon and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. A couple of billion here, a couple of billion there, pretty soon you're talking about real money, hard-earned tax revenue that might have been better spent building a national . . . well, take your pick:

A.) Mass transit/rapid rail system
B.) Universal health care
C.) Public school system
D.) global ice-cream delivery system. . . we could have been proud of.

Or we could use a fraction of that money to provide clean water for every impoverished community in the world, wipe-out malaria or easily preventable ailments that are killing Africa's children, send every kid on earth to Harvard or otherwise start making friends in those parts of the world where we are loathed, soft-power, Cuban style, by sending armies of doctors to cure sick people instead of siccing armies of, well armies, on people.

Here's how the AP broke it down yesterday. Read it and reap what we sow:

WASHINGTON - President Bush's 2008 budget request includes $624.6 billion in defense spending and marks the first time he has offered an estimate of how much the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will cost a year in advance.

On top of $93.4 billion in additional money for this year's war operations and $141.7 billion in projected war costs for next year, the administration is seeking $481.4 billion to run the Defense Department in the budget year beginning Oct. 1. That is an 11.3 percent increase over the $432 billion approved by Congress for this year. Also in the request for department spending is a little less than $2 billion for benefit programs.

For the first time, the Pentagon figures include what Bush wants to spend to fight the Iraq war, money that in past years was put in supplemental appropriations rather than the regular budget.

The Pentagon said the $141.7 billion in anticipated war costs for 2008 include not only the cost of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan but also the cost of repairing, replacing or replenishing equipment lost in combat by both the active-duty military as well as the National Guard and Reserve.