Kent Conrad: “on this subject, I thank the chairman of the Budget Committee and Chairman Stevens for their observations. Early on, I…”

“on this subject, I thank the chairman of the Budget Committee and Chairman Stevens for their observations. Early on, I urged the administration to budget for the war, and they said: It is hard to predict what will be needed. I said: That is true, but the one thing we know for certain, the right answer is not zero. And that is what the administration was sending up in their budgets: Zero, no money. Obviously, that wasn't right. Budgets are about making an estimate of what the costs are going to be. Unfortunately, early on, the chief spokesman for this administration dramatically understated what this war would cost. I remember very well Larry Lindsey, who was the chief economic adviser to the President, said this may cost over $100 billion. The Vice President of the United States chastised him publicly--at least that is my recollection--and suggested that this war would not cost more than $50 billion. Here we are and the war has cost over $300 billion so far, and the administration is still not budgeting appropriately for it. They are dramatically understating in their budgets what this war is really going to cost.…”