Contact:
Newsfox Desk
Phone: + 43 - 1 - 811 40 - 319
E-Mail: editor@newsfox.com
| Pressbox | 
|
Washington (pte049/18.03.2003/17:52) - As war in Iraq becomes likely, a debate over the costs of war has been sparked in the United States. The White House has refrained from making a clear statement about the budget of the war and NGOs have given variety of prognoses. CNN http://www.cnn.com reported today that the costs of war, occupation and reconstruction could range anywhere between nine billion and 1.92 trillion dollars.
President George W. Bush announced early this month he would soon be releasing exact figures, but Democrats have already heavily criticised him for holding back this long. The Democratic Party has warned that war will significantly increase the budget deficit, which has already reached its highest point in US history. Democrats say they expect the cost to be 93bn dollars. According to CNN, the White House intends to ask Congress for an initial 95bn dollars for two months of war, as well as post war costs until September.
President Bush's economic advisor Larry Lindesy said last September he thought the war would cost between 100 and 200bn dollars, but head of the White House Office of Management and Budget http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb Mitch Daniels more reservedly put the cost between 50 and 60bn dollars. The Congressional Budget Office has yet another, much lower prognosis, forecasting the initial cost of war at between nine and 13 billion dollars.
William Nordhaus, a Yale professor and declared opponent of the war in Iraq, has pointed out that during the first Gulf War many more countries carried the costs of along with the US, and that the effects of this war on the US economy could be much more dramatic. In a worst case scenario, he predicts that a drawn-out war could cause a recession with a burden of up to 1.2 trillion dollars. In the best case, he estimates the total cost of the war at 99 billion dollars, and in the worst case up to 1.92 trillion dollars. (newsfox-special Iraq)
(end)
|
|
