Senior Republicans on Congress’s Joint Economic Committee called yesterday for the withdrawal of a report by the committee’s Democratic staff that argues that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost more than $1.5 trillion. Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) and Rep. H. James Saxton (R-N.J.) attacked the report on "hidden costs" of the wars, calling its methodology flawed and asserting factual errors. The report, issued yesterday, said the war has cost nearly double the $804 billion in appropriations and requests for war funding thus far.
In a joint statement, the committee’s Republicans called the report "another thinly veiled exercise in political hyperbole masquerading as academic research." "All wars involve costs, and the war on terror is no exception," Brownback and Saxton said. "The Democrats’ report would have benefited from more analysis and quality control, and less political content. We call on Senator Schumer and the Democratic leadership in the House and the Senate to withdraw this defective report." Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) chairs the committee.
The report argued that large war-related economic costs to U.S. taxpayers do not appear in the budget, such as the rising price of oil, paying for the care of the wounded, fixing damaged military equipment, and interest on foreign debt. It estimated that the wars have cost the average American family of four more than $20,000. War funding experts expressed skepticism about some of the findings but agreed that the wars carry costs well over what Congress has appropriated. Republicans on the committee blasted parts of the report as "unintelligibly confused." White House press secretary Dana Perino said yesterday that the report was a politically motivated "attempt to muddy the waters on what has been some positive developments being reported out of Iraq." Israel Klein, a spokesman for the committee’s majority, defended the report: "Instead of dealing with the substance of this report, the White House is once again trying to deflect attention away from the blistering costs of this war in Iraq."
A new report, "Hidden Costs of the Iraq War," by the Democratic staff of Congress’s Joint Economic Committee, estimates that the costs of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2002 through 2008 will total $1.6 trillion. That includes "hidden costs," such as the amount of interest on money borrowed to pay for the war, the cost of long-term health care for veterans, and how much disruptions to the oil markets are costing. It’s twice the amount that the Bush administration has requested.…The result? If you’re a U.S. citizen, more than 6 percent of your income—6.2 percent, to be unduly precise—has gone toward this war since 2002…
Pricey. But cost is no reason to avoid a war. With this war, there are so many other reasons to get out yesterday [we shouldn’t have gone in the first place; it’s unwinnable; the Iraqis want us out; we have no real mission there; etc.]. Retracting the Report won’t solve anything. But the idea that a solution is to hide from the facts is the very reason that, at this point, the Bush/Cheney Administration is little more than a Missed Impeachment [There’s still time]…
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