Cost Of Iraq War To Congressional District 21
Posted: Jan 22, 20083,990 Brave US Soldiers
29,314 Wounded Soldiers
Total Cost of War: $495,062,000,000 ( $5 Billion! )
- $275 million per day
- $4,100 per household
Taxpayers in Congressional District 21 ( Lincoln Diaz-Balart) will pay $1.1 billion for the cost of the Iraq War through 2007. For the same amount of money, the following could have been provided:
- 342,722 People with Health Care or
- 7,869 Affordable Housing Units or
- 344,861 Scholarships for University Students or
- 167 New Elementary Schools or
- 536,851 Children with Health Care or
- 19,732 Elementary School Teachers or
- 25,397 Public Safety Officers
Cost Of Iraq War
(Thru 2007)
- "FY2003 Supplemental: Operation Iraqi Freedom, made in March 2003, was for $74.8 billion. Passed within a month of the request, the final allocation amounted to $78.5 billion, at least $54.4 billion of which was for the war in Iraq.
- FY2004 Supplemental: Iraq and Afghanistan Ongoing Operations/Reconstruction, for $87 billion, was submitted in September 2003 and passed Congress in November 2003. The final allocation amounted to $87.5 billion, of which $70.6 billion was for Iraq.
- Budget Amendment: $25 Emergency Reserve Fund (Department of Defense - Iraq Freedom Fund) was made in May 2004 and was passed by Congress as part of the Department of Defense appropriations bill in July 2004. Based on Iraq War spending, of the $25 billion appropriated, about $21.5 billion was for the war in Iraq.
- Estimate #1 - Emergency Supplemental (various agencies): Ongoing Military Operations in the War on Terror; Reconstruction Activities in Afghanistan; Tsunami Relief and Reconstruction; and Other Purposes - 2/14/05 was made in February 2005 and passed by Congress in April 2005. The final allocation amounted to $82 billion, of which about $58 billion was for the Iraq War.
- Department of Defense appropriations for fiscal year 2006 (i.e. war funding not initiated by a supplemental request) included $50 billion in a 'bridge fund' for war funding. Based on past Iraq War spending, approximately $40 billion of that can be counted for the Iraq War.
- Estimate #3-FY 2006 Emergency Supplemental (various agencies): Ongoing Military, Diplomatic, and Intelligence Operations in the Global War on Terror; Stabilization and Counter-Insurgency Activities in Iraq and Afghanistan; and Other Humanitarian Assistance-2/16/06 was for $72.4 billion, of which about $60 billion war for the Iraq War.
- Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2007 appropriated another $70 billion in a bridge fund for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, of which approximately 85%, or $59.5 billion, is for the Iraq War. This additional money will fund the conflict through March of 2007.
Additional 2007 and 2008 Proposals, Other Materials contains the administration's supplemental request for an additional $100 billion in war spending in FY 2007. NPP estimates that about $78.1 billion of the money appropriated will be spent (has been spent) on the war in Iraq.
Please note that the Department of Defense was also permitted by legislation to transfer funds from other operations (peacetime, Afghanistan, etc.) to the Iraq War, and so estimating war costs based on Congressional legislation is not enough. An article offered by the Strauss Military Reform Project of the Center for Defense Information offers greater insight into the problems of truly knowing how much has been spent on the Iraq War or other military operations. A Congressional Research Service report also discusses the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
