War costs $3.5 trillion?

The Joint Economic Committee, an advisory Senate-House body, is predicting that the ultimate cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars will be $3.5 trillion under scenarios outlined by the Bush White House.

This figure is more than triple the number forecast by the bipartisan Congressional Budget Office.

The committee report forecasts a scenario, using the budget office's 10-year window, based on statements by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, that the U.S. will mount a long-term "Korea-like" presence in Iraq. Gates' projections involves a reduction of troops by 66 percent by the year 2013.

A reduction of 33 percent of American forces in Afghanistan by 2013 is also envisioned, according to the Joint Economic Committee.

Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., the committee chairman said "the backbreaking costs of this war to American families, the federal budget, and the entire economy are beyond measure in many ways."

The war, the committee says, is financed by borrowed  money - money that could be used to pay for new stateside industrial and commercial investment, and housing.

The committee issued its findings the day before the House narrowly approved a short-term $50 billion appropriation for the two wars, funding it through Feb. 1. The legislation carried non-binding clauses requiring the president to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq next month, which he already is, and bringing "most" of the remainder home by the end of next year.

With the president threatening to veto it, there is little chance the bill will pass the Senate.

Bush did veto a spending bill increasing funding for Pell grants and research money for the National Institutes of Health, saying that congressional Democrats are acting "like a teenager with a new credit card." The appropriations bill contained too many congressional earmarks.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., fired back: "If President Bush applied for a credit card, any bank in America would turn him down as a bad credit risk.  He has put more foreign debt on the nation’s credit card than all previous presidents combined — saddling our children and grandchildren with $3.3 trillion in new debt."

The $50 billion war spending bill is only an installment. The White House will return in January with a request for another $200 billion to pay for the war through next Sept. 30.

The committee's report can be found at this link.

-- Douglas Turner

Comments

[BobbyCat]

Read my lips, this President will bankrupt this country by trying to justify a unjustifiable and failed war.

The Democrats should stop the war by stopping the money. The Dems can stop ANY appropriations bill from reaching the floor. No vote required.

This President wants to begin another war, this time with Iran. He is bloodthirsty with power and disguises it as a moral imperative. The media don't like to talk about it, but I believe this President suffers from cronic personality disorders, mainly alcoholism.

He must be stopped before more of our troopers die to assuage his ego. Bush should have been impeached long ago.

[Rick]

BobbyCat, you don't stop saying dumb things, do you? I guess it's the price of an open society.... once again, there is NO basis to impeachment talks. The "war costs" report is a little ridiculous. The Democrats on the JEC included such things as gas prices. While it's possible that the war in Iraq has played some role, (likely small, as Iraq qas not a large exporter of oil before the war) the report has pegged all gas price hikes to the war. It's a commodity, given to supply and demand. Increased demand for oil in China and India has contributed to the price. The various boutique gas blends here have contributed (perhaps the JEC could have considered the effect of their decision to immediately switch from MTBE to ethanol. That might be asking too much). And as for your comments about a failed war, last I checked, the good guys seemed to be winning. So much for failure. If the Dems want to hang the troops out to dry by cutting off the funding, so be it. People still remember how they did that in the 1970s. They won't forget a repeat of it in 2008.

[BobbyCat]

Rick,

There are lot of blogs where teenagers and young people get their kicks insulting each other.

I'm not into hurling insults at strangers because they hold different opinions than me.

I'm probably older than you imagine. That kid stuff gets old very quickly. Let me suggest other blogs where that type of invective is common.

Macho threats and insults and
name-calling really don't resonate with me.

Please, I'm not interested in playing those games. I'm really not.

[Rick]

What a useless post. Other than pointing out the (rather) large flaw in your thinking, I merely responded to your emotion-laden rant reciting the latest left-wing talking points. Spare me the whining about "kid stuff", "games", and "macho threats". It's really very unbecoming.

[podbabes]

The Federal Reserve already PURPOSELY Bankrupted this Country once. And the Debt clock started when it was created in SECRECY in 1913. Ron Paul is 100% correct about the Fed and you can ask ANY University Business Professor at why the FED is BAD! 3.5 Trillion is a lot of money, and I'm not too sure what we're doing in Iraq or Afghanistan is the right idea. The enemy of America is "FEAR", and with the constant barrage of "TERRORIST FEARS" imprinted on your minds everyday, most people have been brainwashed. There is one trillion barrels of oil in just Colorado - yet it sits there. The Chinese are now drilling for almost 10 Billion barrels of oil off South Florida, yet it's off limits to US oil drillers. The oil sands in Alberta Canada hold more oil than Saudi Arabia and Iran combined -it's easy to extract, and very close to the US. The US imports the most oil from Canada, and second is Mexico yet all we hear about is our "Addiction to Mid-East Oil". When we start to look at the truth, will we see where we can make dramatic improvements. Financially the FED has created America's financial problems, and we have all the oil we need right here in our hemisphere. Who's talking about THIS!!??