Dick Durbin: “I thank the Senator, our Democratic leader and ranking member on the Appropriations Committee, because it turns out that…”

“I thank the Senator, our Democratic leader and ranking member on the Appropriations Committee, because it turns out that Lawrence Lindsey was right. He said it was going to cost about $100 billion to $200 billion. He lost his job over that statement. He was asked to leave the administration. Mitch Daniels, then Director of the Office of Management and Budget, was quoted on December 31, 2002, in the New York Times, as having said then: The administration's top budget official estimated today that the cost of a war with Iraq could be in the range of $50 billion to $60 billion. Well, we have blown past that, clearly. As I have noted, we are at $166 billion and counting. The ultimate cost of reconstruction, if it is $60 billion, means another $40 billion has to be found, and there are not many coalition donors willing to step forward with real money, and that is the reality. The other thing that troubles many of us is that this administration, in justifying the invasion of Iraq, said many things. They said, No. 1, Saddam Hussein is a tyrant who should be replaced. No one argued with that. Everyone agreed. He was a dictator who was cruel to his own people, a threat to the region, and potentially a threat beyond.”