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| September 5, 2002 |
CBO: Government has Spent $37 Billion in War on Terrorism
Christopher Hellman, Senior Analyst, chellman@cdi.org
A new report by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says that the federal government has spent nearly $37 billion in response to the attacks of Sept. 11, and could spend as much as $443 billion more over the next 10 years. The figures are based on actual spending since Sept. 11 and assume that funding requests for counterterrorism that were requested by the administration of President George W. Bush for fiscal year 2003 (FY 03) will be accepted by Congress, and will continue to be funded at levels that keep place with inflation over the next decade.
CBO estimated that of the new spending, $24 billion went to the military. According to the Pentagon, costs of military operations in Afghanistan, which accounts for the vast majority of this new spending, are running at roughly $2.4 billion a month.
Meanwhile, a report prepared earlier this month by the Democratic majority staff of the Senate Budget Committee put the figure for spending to date at approximately $34 billion. The report did not make similar assumptions about future federal spending as were included in the CBO study, but instead looked primarily at spending to date.
Another CBO report released last week dramatically revised downward budget projections made earlier this year. While CBO’s March estimates projected a modest $5 billion surplus for FY 02, the new figures released last week forecast a $157 billion deficit. The projections also showed continued deficits in each of the next three fiscal years -- $145 billion in 2003, $111 billion in 2004, and $39 billion in 2005. CBO expects a cumulative surplus of $1.015 trillion between now and 2012, but most of that ($845 billion) is not realized until after 2010, when newly enacted tax breaks are set to expire. The March CBO report estimated a cumulative surplus of $5.6 trillion.
Bush administration officials have argued that the efforts to combat terrorism and a weak economy are driving future deficits. Meanwhile, Democrats have blamed the White House’s tax cuts enacted last year for the drop in projected surpluses.
According to the Senate report, spending related to Sept. 11 accounts for 11 percent of the decrease in projected surpluses for the 2002-2011 period. Yet tax cuts enacted since January 2001 have reduced projected surpluses by 34 percent.
An analysis of the most recent CBO report done by The New York Times (Sept. 6) shows similar results. Based on CBO’s spending estimates, the paper reported that "about 10 percent of the decline the surplus through 2001 would be directly attributable to the costs of fighting terrorism. The tax cut, at $1.3 trillion over 10 years, would account for about a quarter of the drop in the surplus."
Arab League Vows Support for Iraq -- The foreign ministers of 20 Arab nations have issued a pledge to support Iraq in any confrontation with the United States, saying that threats to the regime of Saddam Hussein’s regime are threats to the whole Arab world. The ministers issued the pledge at the two-day Arab League meeting in Cairo on Sept. 5. The Arab League’s secretary general, Amr Moussa, said that a military strike against Iraq would "open the gates of hell" in the Middle East. The pledge did not specify that member states would lend military assistance if Iraq was attacked.
Sri Lanka Lifts Ban on Tamil Tigers -- The government of Sri Lanka announced that it is lifting its ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), known as the Tamil Tigers. The ban was imposed in 1998 after a Tamil Tiger suicide squad bombed the temple of the Tooth Relic, the most sacred Buddhist shrine in the country. The Tigers had made removal of the ban a key requirement before they would participate in the next round of peace talks scheduled for later this month in Thailand.
Intruder Detected at Chemical Weapons Facility -- An unknown intruder was detected within a mile of the military’s largest chemical weapons storage facility on the Deseret Chemical Depot near Toole, Utah, on September 5. Two Utah National Guard patrols spotted a man in black clothing walking 400 yards away. The man fled out of sight when the patrols turned to confront him. Combat troops were deployed on the base perimeter and local law enforcement officials set up roadblocks, but the man was not found. No signs were found that the base’s barbed wire fence had been breached.
Pentagon Wants $2.3 Billion for Cancelled Fighter Program -- The Pentagon has demanded that a court ordered payment of $2.3 billion by Boeing and General Dynamics be made by the end of the month. The payment is settlement for legal action taken by the government over the Navy’s failed A-12 "Avenger" fighter aircraft program, which was canceled in 1991 after a series of cost overruns and development delays. The Pentagon has warned the companies that if they do not make the payments, then other Defense Department contracts may be withheld.
Quotation of the Week -- "No country should be allowed to take the law into its own hands. Especially the United States, because they are the only superpower in the world today and they must be exemplary in everything they do," former South African President Nelson Mandella, The Times of London, September 3, 2002.
This Week on SUPERPOWER: Global Affairs TV -- "The Absent Coalition on Iraq"
SUPERPOWER examines the timely issues that affect the United States together with foreign experts from around the world. This week, Superpower examines the absence of a coalition in the possibility of military action in Iraq. How do other countries perceive the possibility of U.S. action in Iraq? Will the U.S. be able to rebuild Iraq unilaterally if a regime change takes place? Is the U.S. committed to invading Iraq or would it be willing to explore other alternatives?
Superpower moderator Mark Thompson, of Time Magazine, will be joined by a distinguished panel of experts from around the world. Joining him this week will be Husain Haqqani, Visiting Scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; Danielle Pletka, VicePresident of Foreign & Defense Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute; and Hisham Melham, Washington D.C. Bureau Chief from As-Safir.
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