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November 14, 2007

Republicans call for withdrawal of 'hidden cost of wars' report

John Byrne


Two Republican senators say Democrats can't do math.

Or not exactly.

Senior Republicans on Congress' Joint Economic Committee, Sen. Sam
Brownback (R-KN) and Rep. James Saxon (R-NJ) are calling on Democrats
to retract a staff report alleging the hidden costs of the Iraq war
could total more than $1.5 trillion.

In a joint statement issued to the Washington Post, the committee's
Republicans called the report "another thinly veiled exercise in
political hyperbole masquerading as academic research."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/13/AR200711130194
8_pf.html

"All wars involve costs, and the war on terror is no exception,"
Brownback and Saxton said.

"The Democrats' report would have benefited from more analysis and
quality control, and less political content. We call on [Economic
Committee Chairman Charles] Schumer (D-NY) and the Democratic
leadership in the House and the Senate to withdraw this defective
report."

The Democratic analysis claimed that President Bush's six-year
invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq would end up costing Americans about
$1.5 trillion, or nearly twice as much as the White House has actually
spent to fight its wars, because of unseen costs like inflation,
rising oil prices and expensive care for wounded veterans.

The estimate was revealed in a Democratic staff report from Congress's
Joint Economic Committee.

The staff report, titled "The Hidden Costs of the Iraq War," estimated
that the Iraq and Afghan wars have cost the average family more than
$20,000.

The White House apparently vastly underestimated the war's costs, the
authors assert.

It requested $804 billion -- just more than half the total costs -- to
keep up its wars and occupations through 2008.

"The report argues that war funding is diverting billions of dollars
away from "productive investment" by American businesses in the United
States.

It also says that the conflicts are pulling reservists and National
Guardsmen away from their jobs, resulting in economic disruptions for
U.S. employers that the report estimates at $1 billion to $2 billion,"
the Post's Josh White wrote Tuesday.

Israel Klein, a spokesman for the committee's majority, replied in the
Post.

"Instead of dealing with the substance of this report, the White House
is once again trying to deflect attention away from the blistering
costs of this war in Iraq," he said.

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Harry