The economy is going great. Really. Honest. Truly.

The fact that most of us are not participating in its greatness because we are not hedge fund managers nor do we take our income from managing other peoples’ money is not the point. The economy is great, live with it.

Do you know just how our foreign policy is affecting us every day?

If we consider the costs of the Bush administration to our wallets, entirely separate from any views of political acumen, and then focus only upon the costs of this administration’s foreign policy, we can begin to see why the economy is stacked against most of us.

First, as has been fully revealed, there were no WMDs in Iraq. The invasion did not need to take place.

From an economic standpoint alone, this will cost each of us a fortune. The CBO recently estimated that Iraq will cost each of us, man, woman, and child, $8,000. That’s right, if you are married and have two kids your portion of the bill will be $32,000. Get out your checkbook.

While that bill may not bother you so much since you don’t have to pay until later, consider where some of the money came from: China.

Yes, China, our trading partner that is shipping your kids lead painted toys and baby-killing cribs. Do you think we will stop these imports from our big lender and investor? Hardly.

Apparently we do not even have much interest in regulating the imports. Our federal consumer inspection folks are not interested in regulating at all. Apparently they think regulating consumer products will just create needless lawsuits.

It is also true that our current balance of trade with China is no balance at all. While we ship our jobs to them, they do not buy our products. Our trade seems to be a one way venture with China.

Cost you much? Well, how do you feel about trading your job for cheap lead painted toys…because that is what you have done.

But it is oil where our foreign policy is killing us. You may remember this administration telling us that Iraqi oil would pay for the war.

Not even close. Just another bill we have to pay later.

But now we have soaring oil prices. Why? Well, we have not improved Iraqi oil production; we have alienated Iran with its oil production by threatening World War III if they even think about learning about nuclear weapons.

We have pushed away Russia, with its huge oil reserves over the placement of missiles on their borders. We have tried to overthrow the government of Venezuela because their form of government is socialist, while ignoring their oil production for our needs.

We have even managed to alienate our neighbors in Mexico with deep oil reserves with our failure to develop an immigration policy.

So why is the price of gas going up? Because we have, by our foreign policy, created tension everywhere in the oil industry, and tension creates insecurity, and insecurity makes the markets jumpy, and jumpy markets react with volatility.

Oil prices head now toward $100 a barrel … and all because our president thought it useful to threaten World War III against the Middle East.

Your price for the Bush foreign policy is a loss of good jobs, benefit reductions, pension insecurity, higher gas and heating prices, a trade deficit, a budget deficit and a huge national debt.

Want four more years of Republican administration?

Jim Crawford is a contributing columnist for The Ironton Tribune.