War costs nearing total spent in Vietnam
WASHINGTON – The Bush administration is preparing its largest spending request ever for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a proposal that could make the five-year-old war on terror the most expensive conflict since World War II.
The Pentagon is considering between $130 billion and $160 billion in requests from the armed services for the 2007 fiscal year that began last month, several lawmakers and congressional staff members say. That’s on top of $70 billion already approved for 2007.
Since 2001, the war on terror has cost $432 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office. That does not include any funding for 2007. The new request, expected to reach the incoming Democrat-controlled Congress next spring, would make the war on terror more expensive than Vietnam and give new voice to Democrats’ calls for a change in course.
The 2007 spending “will increase the cost of the war by 50 percent,” said Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., a leading proponent of balancing the budget, “and it won’t solve the problem.”
The White House said the $130 billion to $160 billion figures are premature. “They don’t reflect a decision by the administration,” said Office of Management and Budget spokeswoman Christin Baker. “It is much too early in the process to make that determination.”
Before the war in Iraq began in 2003, the Bush administration estimated its total cost at $50 billion to $60 billion. White House economic advisor Lawrence Lindsey had said in 2002 that it could cost $200 billion, but other White House officials disputed that estimate.
Growing opposition to the war led to the Democrats’ takeover of the House and Senate this month. It fueled Pennsylvania Rep. Jack Murtha’s insurgent campaign to be the party’s House majority leader in the next Congress.
Murtha, who lost his bid Thursday, nevertheless vowed to use his clout as chairman of the House panel that reviews the Pentagon budget “to get these troops out of Iraq and get back on track and quit spending $8 billion a month.”
The spending request under review by the Pentagon is top-heavy with Army and Air Force costs to replace and repair equipment and redeploy troops, said Bill Hoagland, top budget adviser to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. That’s why the 2007 cost is likely to total far more than the war’s average annual price tag.
“There is a lot of pent-up, backed-up demands. A lot of it is equipment. A lot of it is redeployment,” Hoagland said. “At a minimum, they were looking at $130 (billion). If it goes higher than that, I’m not surprised.”
Overall, Hoagland said, “we’re easily headed toward $600 billion.” That would top the $536 billion cost of Vietnam in today’s dollars. Only World War II, with an inflation-adjusted cost of more than $3 trillion, was more expensive.
Most war costs have been paid for by emergency spending bills, which are not accounted for in that year’s budget. About $120 billion was incorporated into the 2006 and 2007 budgets, and the White House says it will include some projected costs when it proposes its 2008 budget in February.
“Our goal is to provide more information to lawmakers and to the American people about how much, what for, and by when,” Baker said.