Monday, February 05, 2007
Carl’s Point originates at KCUP-1230 AM radio in Newport, Oregon on Tuesday, 7:26 a.m., repeating Thursday 6:26 a.m.
Note: To receive the full impact of Carl’s Point, you must hear it. Click on the audio icon for the total Carl’s Point experience!
Announcer: Gather ‘round everybody! It’s time once again for:
Chorus: DO THE MATH!
Announcer: And here’s your host, that nimble number cruncher himself: Carl Estrada!
APPLAUSE
Carl: Thank you, thank you. Question: When My President says He’ll send 21,500 more troops to Iraq, how many troops does that equal?
Contestant #1: Twenty-one thousand, five hundred?
Carl: Wrong.
Contestant #2: Seventeen thousand to Baghdad and forty-five hundred to outlying areas?
Carl: Wrong again.
Contestant #3: The president plans to send forty-eight thousand more troops to Iraq.
Carl: Excellent answer! And who can tell me why twenty-one thousand, five hundred troops equals forty-eight thousand troops?
Contestant#3: Because for every combat troop, we need a support troop.
Carl: Right again! And furthermore . . .
Contestant #1: But Carl, doesn’t two times twenty-one thousand, five hundred equal forty-three thousand?
Carl: Well, sometimes it does, but today it equals forty-eight thousand. Next question: How many private contractors do we have in Iraq?
Contestant #1: A hundred thirty thousand?
Carl: No. That’s about how many American troops we had before the surge.
Contestant #2: Fourteen thousand, two hundred?
Carl: No. That’s how many coalition forces are fighting in Iraq.
Contestant #3: There are one hundred twenty thousand private contractors in Iraq.
Carl: Correct! And how much do they get paid?
Contestant #1: $158,000 per year?
Carl: No, that’s what Congress gets paid.
Contestant #2: $7.50 a day?
Carl: No, that’s how much the average American soldier in Iraq gets paid.
Contestant #3: Private contractors in Iraq make up to one thousand dollars a day.
Carl: Correct! And they earn every penny! Last question: When My President first started this war, His Office of Management and Budget guessed it would cost between fifty and sixty billion dollars. How much have we spent so far?
Contestant #1: Fifty billion dollars?
Carl: Wrong.
Contestant #2: Sixty billion dollars?
Carl: Nope.
Contestant #3: The war in Iraq has cost us 1.2 trillion dollars.
Carl: Well played! Tune in next week when answer the question: How many Iraqi citizens have died in this war?
Contestant #3: Six hundred fifty-five thousand.
Carl: And we learn how many Iraqis have escaped Iraq.
Contestant #3: Over a million.
Carl: And we learn how many Iraqi refugees we’ve allowed into America.
Contestant #3: Five hundred.
Carl: All that and more next week when we:
Chorus: DO THE MATH!
APPLAUSE
I’m Carl Estrada and that’s my point.