One Wisconsin Now Launches ‘McCain’s Iraq Tax on Wisconsin’ Website

MILWAUKEE — One Wisconsin Now has launched a website to highlight both the $8.3 billion cost of the Iraq War paid by Wisconsin, and Sen. John McCain’s willingness to go along with George W. Bush and continue this failed effort- even for as long as 100 years.

“The human toll of the Iraq war is immeasurable, the economic damage unprecedented. This failed policy has already cost more than half a trillion dollars,” said One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross. “John McCain has walked in lockstep with Bush to levy this first $8.3 billion Iraq Tax on Wisconsin, and he’s even willing to continue the war for another 100 years. Wisconsin cannot let this stand.”

Spending on the Iraq War has already topped half a trillion dollars and according to Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, the full cost of the war is a stunning $3 trillion. Estimates are that 40 percent of taxes paid will go to the military this year.

In conjunction with the “McCain’s Iraq Tax on Wisconsin” launch, visitors can enter a contest on the website which asks: “What good could you do with $8.3 billion?” Participants are encouraged to share what they would have used this $8.3 billion for in order to help Wisconsin. The best suggestions will be featured in OWN’s monthly OWNetwork electronic newsletter.

“America and Wisconsin cannot afford to continue an endless war in Iraq,” said Ross. “Instead of strengthening our forces, the Bush-McCain war policy has spent those dollars on a war stretching our military to the breaking point and driving our state and our nation into recession.”

“McCain’s Iraq Tax on Wisconsin” includes multimedia information from the National Priorities Project showing what this $8.3 billion could have been spent on, including the number of elementary schools, affordable housing units, homes with renewable electricity, Head Start places for children, health care patients, public safety officers and university scholarships.