Surge costs are triple estimates

I am surprised that the cost of the war so far does not seem to be hurting the US economy. It must be increasing the debt considerably. If foreign dollar holders such as China and Saudi Arabia become alarmed I just wonder if there won't be big problems.


Cost of troop surge already higher
By James Rosen
McClatchy Newspapers
1 February 2007
WASHINGTON - President Bush's dispatch of 21,500 more troops to Iraq will cost as much as $10 billion this year, triple the administration's price tag, the Congressional Budget Office said Thursday.

A CBO report requested by three House committee chairmen said the Bush administration's estimated cost of $3.2 billion doesn't take into account a complement of 15,000 to 28,000 support troops and other personnel, which it said will boost the cost significantly.

"CBO's report concludes that the cost of the president's plan to surge troops will be higher than previously indicated, both in dollar terms and in the burdens it places on our military," said House Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt, a South Carolina Democrat.

The troop increase will cost an extra $7 billion to $10 billion this year alone, with the price tag reaching $49 billion if the added forces remain in Iraq for two years, according to the CBO analysis.

Spratt, one of the three lawmakers who asked for the CBO report, said Congress has appropriated $379 billion to date for the Iraq war. Bush is expected to send Congress as early as next week an emergency spending bill for $100 billion in war costs, Spratt said, with about $80 billion slated for Iraq.