OMB Head Russ Vought Refuses to Provide Financial Estimates on Iran War Costs |
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Testifying before both houses of Congress on Wednesday, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) head Russ Vought refused to provide lawmakers with estimates of how much the war on Iran is costing the U.S. financially.
Vought — one of the main proponents of Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation-backed blueprint for how President Donald Trump should run the government that was published and promoted during the 2024 campaign — stymied any questions about the war’s costs by claiming ignorance.
“I don’t have a ballpark for you,” he said during the House hearing.
At the Senate hearing, Vought said costs were changing by the day, suggesting that was the reason he didn’t want to give a definitive answer.
“If you were to be on the inside of the Department of War, these costs would fluctuate given the day. So I think it’s hard to give you an average cost,” he said.
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Vought also refused to provide a baseline number. Asked if reports that around $50 billion had been spent so far were accurate, the OMB director again declined to give an affirmative response.
“I wouldn’t [want] to make a characterization of that at this point,” Vought said.
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon), who had raised that question to Vought, didn’t like that response. “I would expect you to have pretty good numbers on that so I’m a little disappointed in that answer,” Merkley said.
Outside of the hearings, Democrats expressed deeper frustrations with Vought’s non-answers.
“The American people would be absolutely appalled to know how little planning went into this war,” Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Illinois) told Bloomberg.
“We’re getting no reliable or accurate information about essential facts here like the costs of this war,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) said.
According to the “Iran War Cost Tracker” website, which provides real-time estimates of the costs of the conflict, the U.S. has spent over $53 billion as of Friday morning. Other policy experts are predicting that the war could cost much, much more by the time it concludes.
“I am certain we will reach $1 trillion for the Iran war,” Harvard professor Linda Bilmes said, suggesting that daily estimates for costs are much higher than what are being reported, and that long-term costs — such as rebuilding infrastructure at damaged military installations in the Middle East, as well as interest rates costs due to borrowing money for the war — have yet to be taken into account.
The U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and Lebanon has cost more than just money, of course, as it has killed thousands of people so far.
As of Wednesday, 2,076 have been killed in Iran, with another 26,500 injured, according to figures provided by Al Jazeera. Another 2,167 have been killed in Lebanon, with 7,061 injured in that country. Israel has seen 26 people killed since the start of the war, with 7,693 injured. And the U.S. military has seen 13 people killed, with 200 injured.
These numbers are only confirmed figures, and the true death toll is likely to be higher.
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Chris Walker is a news writer at Truthout, based in Madison, Wisconsin. Focusing on both national and local topics since the early 2000s, he has produced thousands of articles analyzing the issues of the day and their impact on people. He can be found on most social media platforms under the handle @thatchriswalker.