Bobby Scott: “the entire Persian Gulf war 12 years ago cost the United States much less than $8 billion. The total cost of that war…”

“the entire Persian Gulf war 12 years ago cost the United States much less than $8 billion. The total cost of that war was $61 billion, but because allies were participating, our share was only 12 percent of the total cost. We have already spent $79 billion on the present war on Iraq, and now we are asked to appropriate another $87 billion for a total of $166 billion, so far. To put the $166 billion into perspective, the total appropriation for this fiscal year (FY 2003) for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Department of Transportation, the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Labor, and the U.S. Department of State was less than $166 billion. And on a per person basis, $166 billion is more for each person in Iraq than the total annual U.S. Government spending for each American citizen for everything other than Social Security and Defense. Although this is a huge expenditure, the administration fails to even give lip service to explain how the bill will be paid. No outline of spending cuts or increased taxes has been presented. The Administration has opposed lending any portion of the funds to Iraq because the Administration claims that Iraq is too far in debt already, even though the national debt in Iraq is approximately $4,000 per person while the national debt in the United States is approximately $20,000 per person. It therefore has to be assumed that all of the money will be borrowed by the United States government.”