LEAVE THEM A LOAN
Matthew Stinson has some thoughts on why loaning money to Iraq makes bad economic sense and Senators who oppose grants are short-sighted. He also links good posts on the subject by Dean Esmay, Robert Prather, and David Brooks. Steven Taylor has an interesting argument as well.
I’m still somewhat on the fence on this one. Intellectually, I realize that $10 billion (which is now the disputed loan/grant amount) is a rounding error in the federal budget and see the practical and symbolic value of the grant. Viscerally, the “but they’re sitting on billions worth of oil” and “we could do a lot with $20 billion domestically” arguments are actually fairly compelling.
