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President
Bush and his aides have spent the last year and
a half telling the American people that the war
in Iraq would cost little. A new report by Defense
News, however, says the president will propose
another $50 billion, in addition to the $166 billion
already spent. According to the non-partisan Center
for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, the request
"won't come until after the Nov. 2 presidential
election" - effectively concealing the spending
request from public scrutiny.
In
the lead-up to the Iraq war, the president's staff
conducted a PR campaign aimed at quelling public
concern about its cost. Then White House Budget
Director, Mitch Daniels, said Iraq "will not require
sustained aid" and that the war cost would "be
in the range of $50 billion to $60 billion." The
president's top reconstruction official at the
State Department told Nightline that "The American
part of [reconstruction] will be $1.7 billion
and we have no plans for further-on funding of
this." The president's top economist, Glen Hubbard,
said that "costs of any such intervention would
be very small". Deputy Defense Secretary Paul
Wolfowitz "dismissed articles in several newspapers
asserting that put cost of war and reconstruction
at $60 billion to $95 billion." And Bush had his
new Budget Director tell the Senate that "we don't
anticipate requesting anything additional for
the balance of this year" - six weeks before he
announced a request for an additional $87 billion.
When White House economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey
admitted that Iraq could cost up to $200 billion
in the fall of 2002, he was summarily fired for
his candor.
Days
after the $87 billion request made by the president,
the Administration was questioned by skeptical
Republicans and Democrats in Congress about the
rising costs of continued involvement in Iraq.
But even then, the president dispatched Wolfowitz
to answer the charges with a flat-out denial.
Despite the public record leading up to it, Wolfowitz
told Congress that "No one said we would know
anything other than...this could be very expensive."
Topplebush.com
Posted: January 23, 2004
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