What debt? Mitt offers to spend money we don't have.

How much is Mitt willing to spend, to move the US Embassy in Tel Aviv 35 miles to Jerusalem as a symbolic gesture?

Mitt Romney committed the US to spend money to do just that, yesterday, and I wanted to know how much money that would involve, so I did some quick research.

• Latvia: $96M - 1
• Romania: $100M - 2
• Morocco: $187M -3
• Baghdad: $600 ~ $750M -3, 4
• London: $1B - 5

In 1995, Republicans tried to allocate over $100M for such a relocation to Jerusalem.  That was years before 9/11, and of course excludes the cost of today's dollars, taking inflation into account, and was never meant to account for the full cost of relocation.

$1B seems like a lot of money for an embassy in Israel, until you realize that the cost of living in Jerusalem is significantly higher than that in most of Europe and the US.  So let's say you build a heavily fortified structure in the middle of disputed territory that is likely to be subject to mortar attacks: do you think it'll be cheap?

I don't.
I think it'll cost in the neighborhood of $1B to move the US Embassy in Israel, all of 35 miles.
But leave it to the media to leave this issue unchallenged.

1. US Embassy Latvia mission site
2. BBW
3. Washington Diplomat
4. Wikipedia
5. Fox News