Letter of the WeeQ

did we have a winner yesterday? i can't remember. either way, this one's also a winner.

In Robert F. Anderson's Oct. 10 letter, "Favorite Myths," he opines about alleged inaccuracies in the Register's reporting on the Iraq war. Anderson pleads with us to check the facts. I did.

1. Bush lied about weapons of mass destruction. Truth: In August 1995, Gen. Hussein Kamel, the former director of Iraq's weapons program, defected and was interviewed by U.N. weapons inspectors. He stated categorically that Iraq destroyed its WMD after the first Gulf War.

On three separate occasions President Bush and members of his administration cited this same source as confirming the existence of WMD in Iraq. Not exactly honest.

2. It's about oil. Truth: Anderson claims that if it were really about oil, we could have just done business with Saddam Hussein. Well, we did. Vice President Dick Cheney, as president of Halliburton, sold $73 million of oil equipment to Saddam using shady subsidiaries. Now, after the war, Halliburton doesn't just get to sell equipment to the Iraqi oil industry, it gets to run the whole show.

3. Tax cuts cause deficits. Truth: In government accounting, it's budget imbalances that cause deficits, not just spending. Tax cuts are properly thought of as tax expenditures. Forgone revenue is functionally equivalent to an equal amount of spending.

The idea that massive tax cuts will in the long run create more economic growth relies on highly dubious voodoo economics.

I suggest we all take a more critical view of the "facts."

-Lucas Forte, Iowa City.

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