Byron Dorgan: “We do not fund wartime budgets in advance because we don't know what a war will cost. There is no disagreement on that…”

“We do not fund wartime budgets in advance because we don't know what a war will cost. There is no disagreement on that score. We do not have a wartime budget, and we do not have an appropriations bill in front of us that deals with the cost of war. We agree with that. In fact, all of us know the President indicated the war in Iraq was over. We understand at this point we have had some difficulty restoring order completely and there is some violence occurring in Iraq, but most of our troops in Iraq are not fighting. Most of the troops in Iraq are engaged in some kind of peacekeeping and restoration of order. The point I was trying to make is this: This country always supports its troops and does so very aggressively, and no one will question whether that is the case. This subcommittee does that and does it aggressively. If we find in Iraq and Afghanistan--two theaters in which we have been engaged for some while--that troop strength in those areas remains about the same level as it has been and we are spending about $5 billion a month, my understanding is somewhere near the end of this year we will be about out of money, and we will be taking money from other accounts. So there will be 9 months left in the next fiscal year. If they continue to spend money at that level, we are talking about $40 or $50 billion. The chairman says he expects that not to happen. I hope it does not happen.”