randomWalks

In FY 2003 (ending September 30, 2003), the U.S. will have spent $48 billion on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as laid out by the $79 billion Emergency Wartime Supplemental Appropriations Act. (1) pdf. For FY2004, Bush, as we know, requested an addition $87 billion. (2) Adding those two together produces the figure $166 billion, which a lot of people have now started to use as the cost of the war and occupation.

Here's a few takes on this: $166 B, $166 B, $166 B.

That $166 billion, over two years, breaks down into:

• $6.9 billion per month, which is how much states have had to raise taxes this year to cover budget shortfalls.
• $1.6 billion per week—the 1/1000th of Bush's proposed $1.6 trillion tax cut plan in 2001. (Of course, Bush only got $1.2 trillion in that first go around followed by that $350 billion tax cut this year.
So the tough Democrats (the ones we are supposed to have a lot of faith in to beat back Bush, managed to carve out a nifty $50 million of Bush's original plan. What fighters! But I digress.)
• $227 million per day, or about what the government used to spend on youth opportunity grants before slashing that amount to $45 million in 2003.

But I'm wondering if that figure itself is too low. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates next year's war related expenditures as $120 billion.

That figure includes $31 billion of the $79 billion package approved earlier this year, $60 billion of the $87 billion Bush just asked for and some other expenses. So the 2003-2004 total is $168 billion ($79 billion-$31 billion=$48 billion for 2003+$120 billion for 2004). But, that leaves $27 billion of the $87 billion unaccounted for putting the total cost of the war at $195 billion.

That's a staggering amount.

Think about it this way, here are the costs of each of America's other major wars, adjusted to 2002 dollars.

Sources:(3) pdf. Adapted from(4)

* (The World War I figure is a bit screwy. All the other figures were adjusted up from their 1990 equivalents, but the WWI went down. Seems like an error.)

Put another way, $195 billion spread over two years breaks down like this:

• $8.1 billion per month—the almost same amount the California Assembly approved in state budget cuts in March.
• $1.9 billion per week, which is the total amount that the White House raised elementary and secondary spending between the 2001 and 2002 budgets.
• $267 million per day, about half the amount that hospitals in New York State lose annually in the New York State Executive Budget.

(I also posted this at Zagg)

originally posted by zagg