Print

Mail

wiki links

Cost of invasion tallied for taxpayers

A war with Iraq will cost US taxpayers US$10 billion the first month, and US$8 billion every month after the initial attack, the Congressional Budget Office said in a report on federal spending plans.

President George W. Bush has resisted putting a price on the conflict, saying in a press conference Thursday that the White House would present the cost of the war to the public "at the appropriate time" in supplemental legislation.

The benefits of an invasion "if, in fact, we go forward and are successful, are also immeasurable," Bush told a reporter at the briefing after declining to state a dollar figure. "How do you measure the benefit of freedom in Iraq?"

Projections on the costs of a conflict are politically sensitive for Bush because taxpayers are struggling with a flagging economy at home that lost 308,000 jobs last month, the most since the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Many state governments are considering higher taxes to avoid cutting services as they face a collective budget shortfall estimated by a legislators' group to be more than US$112 billion.

Tensions over Iraq also sent oil prices to US$37.78 a barrel on the New York Mercantile exchange Friday, a 12-year high. The rise in energy prices results in a direct cost to consumers in the form of higher gasoline prices.

The cost of sending troops and armament and bringing them back could total US$23 billion.

"The incremental cost following combat operations could vary from about US$1 billion to US$4 billion a month," the CBO said.
This story has been viewed 1825 times.