Taxpayers lost the moment the Republicans spent $12 billion a month to go into Iraq. It was just a matter of when the bill came due.
I believe the taxpayers will always be the losers until those who spend those dollars (all parties included) begin to treat every single dollar as if it were coming out of their own personal budgets. I wouldn't mind seeing some of that oil profit from Iraq coming back to pay a little for the freedom our blood bought for them.
Most Republicans/conservatives I've met don't seem to understand that a dollar spent on welfare is infinitely better than a dollar spent on Iraq. Even if it does absolutely no good for poor people anywhere, at least welfare KEEPS OUR MONEY IN OUR ECONOMY. In other words, it may be messed up to take a dollar from a USA citizen who worked hard for it and give it to someone who didn't, but at least you can say hey, that dollar didn't leave the country. That poor person is gonna go out there and put that money right back into the system. The United States, as a whole, is not poor-er... our deficit has not gone up. Contrast that to a dollar that is spent building crap or blowing up crap or whatever in Iraq. Aside from a small portion taken as profit by contractors, those dollars are LOST, gone forever from our economy. This is a bad thing, especially given our very worrying trade deficit.
It's still a little bit too close to call. Were it not for the potential of a Bradley Effect, I would predict Obama the winner. I'm not quite ready to make that predition yet. A mere 143 years ago, blacks were enslaved in America and owned as property, and now we are about to elect a black man President. Something tells me that when Obama supporters get to the polls on election day, they are going to change their vote at the last minute.