Past Comments About How Much
Earlier
this year, experts said the war and aftermath in Iraq would cost hundreds of
billions of dollars, a fact the White House refused to acknowledge as valid,
even going so far as to fire Lawrence Lindsey for his realistic projections. In September, 2003, Paul Wolfowitz even told
the Senate “no one said we would know anything other than
this would be very bloody, it could be very long and by implication, it could
be very expensive." Here’s a record of what the administration, in
fact, said:
Budget Director Mitch Daniels
Ø
On
Ø
“When
a reporter asked Daniels yesterday whether the administration was preparing to
ask other countries to help defray possible
Ø
“There’s
just no reason that this can’t be an affordable endeavor.” [Source: Reuters, “
Ø
“The
Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
Ø
“Well, the Office of Management and Budget, has come up come up with a
number that's something under $50 billion for the cost. How
much of that would be the
Ø
“I don’t know that there is much
reconstruction to do.” [Source: Reuters,
“
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz
Ø
“I think it's necessary to preserve some ambiguity of exactly
where the numbers are.” [Source: House
Budget Committee,
Top Economist Adviser Glen Hubbard
Ø
“Costs of any such intervention would be very
small.” [Source: CNBC, 10/4/02]
Budget Director Josh Bolten
Ø
“We don't anticipate
requesting anything additional for the balance of this year.” [Source: Congressional
Testimony ,
Past Comments About How Much
The Bush administration promised reconstruction of
Press Secretary Ari Fleischer: “Well,
the reconstruction costs remain a very -- an issue for the future. And
Deputy Secretary of State Richard
Armitage: “This is not
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul
Wolfowitz: “There’s a lot of money to pay for this that doesn’t
have to be U.S. taxpayer money, and it starts with the assets of the Iraqi
people…and on a rough recollection, the oil revenues of that country could bring
between $50 and $100 billion over the course of the next two or three years…We’re
dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and
relatively soon.” [Source: House Committee on Appropriations Hearing
on a Supplemental War Regulation,
Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld: “If you [Source: worry about just] the cost, the
money,
State Department Official Alan
Larson: “On the resource side,
Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld: “I don't believe that the United States has the responsibility for reconstruction, in a
sense…[Reconstruction] funds can come from those various sources I mentioned:
frozen assets, oil
revenues and a variety of other things, including the Oil for Food, which has a very
substantial number of billions of dollars in it. [Source: Senate Appropriations Hearing,