I agree with Wisconsin Congressman Dave Obey, the top House appropriator, on funding the Afghanistan War:
As an Appropriator I must ask, what will that policy cost and how will we pay for it? We are now in the middle of a fundamental debate over reforming our healthcare system. The President has indicated that it must cost less than900 billion over ten years and be fully paid for. The Congressional Budget Office has had four committees twisting themselves into knots in order to fit healthcare reform into that limit. CBO is earnestly measuring the cost of each competing healthcare plan. Shouldn’t it be asked to do the same thing with respect to Afghanistan? If we add 40,000 troops and recognize the need for a sustained 10 year or longer commitment, as the architects of this plan tell us we do, the military costs alone would be over800 billion. And unlike the demands that are being made of the healthcare alternatives that they be deficit neutral, we’ve heard no such demand with respect to Afghanistan. I would ask how much will this entire effort cost, when you add in civilian costs and costs in Pakistan? And how would that impact the budget?
Obey’s entire statement on Afghanistan bolsters the case to scrutinize costs: he talks about how sending more U.S. troops might actually embolden terrorist groups, how the U.S. is moving from its narrow goal of wiping out al Qaeda, and how a war in Afghanistan helped sink the Soviet Union. You can disagree with all these points — but what they show is that there’s legit doubt about expanding the war. It’s not necessarily a national security imperative.
Yet the costs of any national security policy, be it the Afghanistan War, the Iraq War or the DHS build-up at the Mexican border, escape the budget scrutiny Congress applies to domestic policy. This double-standard is associated with Republicans, but it exists regardless of the party in power. Barack Obama does not call on Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orzsag to give charts and graphs on how Afghanistan will impact the 2019 national deficit.
Now would be a very appropriate time to fight this double standard given that Washington is debating the funding of a questionable war and also the funding of health care and more economic stimulus. Obey’s remarks do seem to be gaining traction — will other Congressional leaders second his analysis?