WASHINGTON — The total cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could balloon to $3.5 trillion over the next decade because of such “hidden” costs as oil market disruptions, foregone investments, long-term health care for veterans and interest payments on borrowed war funding, according to a report released by congressional Democrats on Tuesday.
The projection, by the Democratic majority on the Joint Economic Committee, is more than $1 trillion higher than a recent forecast by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which accounted only for direct spending and interest payments and assumed a moderate withdrawal of troops between now and 2017.
“The full costs of this war to our economy are manifested in ways that have never been accounted for by this administration: We are funding this war with borrowed money, Americans are paying more at the gas pump, and it will take years for our military to recover from the damage of the president’s failed war strategy,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said.
For the Iraq and Afghanistan wars so far, those costs total about $1.6 trillion, the report found — almost double the direct appropriations of $804 billion in the 2003-08 fiscal years.
The $1.6 trillion figure translates into a cost of $20,900 for a family of four, the report said.
Of the wars’ total, $1.3 trillion, or more than twice the $607 billion appropriated, is for Iraq alone. That would cost a family of four $16,500, the report said.
The $3.5 trillion scenario translates into a cost of $46,400 for a family of four, the report said.
In a joint statement, the Joint Economic Committee’s Republicans called the report “another thinly veiled exercise in political hyperbole masquerading as academic research.”
The House and the Senate will vote, probably this week, on a $50 billion spending bill for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The bill would provide the funding on the condition that the Bush administration begins immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops, with a goal of complete withdrawal by Dec. 15, 2008.
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