10% of the US budget goes to war

From All Headline News:

Congress Estimates U.S. Will Spend $1 Trillion On Iraq War

August 1, 2007 9:11 p.m. EST

Christopher Rizo - AHN Staff Writer

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the war in Iraq could cost U.S. taxpayers more than $1 trillion, or at least double what has already been spent.

The nonpartisan forecast, released Tuesday to lawmakers, includes the cost of keeping some U.S. forces in Iraq for several years and of providing long-term care and financial support for wounded soldiers and benefits for the families of those killed, the Boston Globe reported on Wednesday.

"We are now spending on these activities more than 10 percent of all the government's annually appropriated funds," said Robert Sunshine, CBO assistant director for budget analysis.

Testifying before the House Budget Committee, Sunshine said that he used two scenarios - an optimistic one in which most U.S. forces are withdrawn ultimately, and another less rosy picture in which a sizable contingent remains for several years - to calculate anticipated costs, The Globe reported.

If the United States gradually reduced its troop level in Iraq to 30,000 by 2010, the US government would still have to provide up to $500 billion more to sustain those troops, as well as pay other expenses, he said in the report.

In the alternative scenario - in which 75,000 US troops remain stationed in Iraq over the next five years - he said the nation would have to pay an additional $900 billion.