Report: 'Hidden cost' of wars push it to $1.6 trillion by Mark Silva
The "hidden costs'' of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are spelled out in a report that the Joint Economic Committee of Congress is releasing at the Capitol this morning.
With costs already known, by this accounting, the toll reaches $1.6 trillion.
The congressional report attempts to place a price tag on the wars by including interest on the debt incurred by war spending, the cost of long-term care for the war-wounded and even disruptions in the world oil market.
The total is double the $800 billion which the administration actually has requested for the wars in supplemental spending bills, the committee reports.
The $1.6 trillion -- covering a time frame of 2002-08, translates into $20,900 for each American family of four, the report concludes.
For Iraq alone, the total is $1.3 trillion, $16,500 for each family.
Oil prices have surged since the start of the wars, the report notes -- rising from $37 per barrel to well over $90 per barrel in recent weeks. "Consistent disruptions from the war have affected oil prices," the report notes, though the war are not completely responsible.
The cost to consumers of that oil price uptick: $124 billion.
"What this report makes crystal clear is that the cost to our country in lives lost and dollars spent is tragically unacceptable," Joint Economic Chairman Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) says in a statement accompanying the report -- to be released at a 10:30 am EST press conference.
The report serves as a prelude to another House vote this week to set timelines for troop withdrawals as a condition for $50 billion in additional war-spending -- only about one-quarter of what the Bush administration has requested for the wars through the 2008 budget year.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.