National Priorities
Project
Tallies Cost of
War
through September
30, 2010
$747 billion for
Iraq
$299 billion for
Afghanistan
Congress has appropriated an additional $136.8 billion for
wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for the 2010 fiscal year.
National Priorities Project estimates that for this fiscal year,
$64.5 billion is directed to Iraq and $72.3 billion to
Afghanistan. Bills that included war-related funding were the
Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act (H.R. 2892)
passed on October 28, 2009; the Consolidated Appropriations Act
(H.R. 3288) passed on December 16, 2009; and the Department of
Defense Appropriations Act (H.R. 3326) passed on December 19,
2009.
These new appropriations bring total war-related spending for
Iraq to $747.3 billion and for Afghanistan to $299 billion, with
total war costs of $1.05 trillion[1].
National Priorities
Project (NPP) updated its
Cost of War
counters to reflect the new totals and to show the local costs of
these wars to states and many cities. NPP's trade-off
tool allows you to explore what services could be obtained for
your community with the same amount of money that Congress has
appropriated for war spending.
These current year appropriations do not include funds to
support the “surge” of 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan
proposed by the Obama administration on December 1, 2009.
Conservative estimates suggest that it will cost approximately $30
billion to fund this surge. Supplemental appropriations for
this funding are expected later this year.
Since 2001, the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and related
activities have been funded through emergency supplemental
appropriations. In a clear departure from this practice, the Obama
administration integrated the FY2010 war funding into the core
budget appropriations process. While this process purportedly
allows for greater scrutiny and control over the allocation of tax
dollars relative to the emergency supplemental funding process, it
has — ironically — also become more difficult to ascertain the
exact spending amounts directed to Iraq and Afghanistan. Past
supplemental bills outlined funding almost exclusively for war costs
whereas departmental appropriations combine these war costs with all
other departmental funds for the entire fiscal
year.
War funding was found within three separate appropriations
bills with the bulk of money in the Defense Appropriations Bill
passed just before Congress left for their winter break. In
addition to defense funding, this bill was used to extend Food Stamp
benefits (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program - SNAP),
unemployment benefits, and COBRA payments to continue health
insurance coverage for the unemployed[2].
NPP will continue to follow Iraq and Afghanistan war funding
including any supplemental bills to support the Afghanistan surge
that has already begun as well as any other additional war
costs.
For more information:
413.584.9556 or
www.nationalpriorities.org.
