Washington, D.C. (Wednesday, October 24, 2007)---U.S. Representative Tom Allen, a Member of the House Budget Committee, issued the statement below today in reaction to a new report from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) on the rising cost of the war in Iraq.  CBO projected that the cumulative costs of this war could reach $1.9 trillion (as part of an overall $2.4 trillion estimate that included the costs of the war in Afghanistan and other anti-terror efforts).  CBO officials presented their findings to Representative Allen and other committee members at a hearing this morning.

“Today, CBO projected that the Iraq War could cost up to $1.9 trillion from its inception in 2003 through the next ten years, the period of time General Petraeus says we need to stay.  This is in addition to the severe toll already paid by our American service men and women, over 3,800 of whom have died with another nearly 30,000 wounded and amounts to more than $6,000 from every man, woman and child in America.  These projected costs only reinforce my position that Congress must set a firm deadline to end the war.

“The report also confirms what I foresaw in the run-up to the war.  At a September 18, 2002 House Armed Services Committee hearing, I asked then Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld about the estimate by Larry Lindsey, then a White House economic adviser, that total cost for the war would be $100-200 billion, a statement Vice President Cheney and others called exaggerated.  Secretary Rumsfeld replied that ‘it is not knowable what a war or a conflict like that would cost. You don't know if it is going to last two days or two weeks or two months. It certainly isn't going to last two years, but it is going to cost money.’  Five years later, we still don’t know the final cost.

“In today’s hearing, responding to one of my questions, CBO Director Peter Orszag testified that the Department of Defense’s data make it nearly impossible to effectively measure the actual costs of the Iraq War separately from the war in Afghanistan and other anti-terror efforts.  DOD’s lack of clear and specific data frustrates Congress’s effort to conduct effective oversight and demand accountability.  The Administration’s practice of funding all these operations together hides the true costs of the war in Iraq.  I believe this warrants further action.”

contact: Mark Sullivan, (207)774-5019