Before the War Resumes, Congress Should Read the Whole Bill

The Iran war has cost at least $47.1 billion, according to a Central Command estimate provided to lawmakers and obtained by CBS News. That is about $3 billion more than the last figure, and it leaves out the cost of damage to American bases in the Middle East. It is also, by the Pentagon’s own admission, a partial count. A war in its ninth month should not be financed on partial counts.

The numbers show where the money has gone. About $29 billion is for replacing munitions, $6.1 billion for lost equipment and $11.9 billion in support costs. Three months ago, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth put the total at $37.5 billion. The Congressional Budget Office has warned that each further month could cost $2 billion to $3 billion more. These are not rounding errors, and they are arriving while the administration’s request for tens of billions in supplemental funding sits unpassed.

The bill is not only the Pentagon’s. Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi estimates the war has cost the average American family about $2,000, mostly through higher energy and borrowing costs. This week the Federal Reserve held rates at 3.75% to 4% with inflation at 3.7%, and chairman Kevin Warsh pointed to energy prices as a driver. Families who pay for gasoline, diesel and groceries are paying for this war whether or not Congress ever voted on it.

There is a readiness question, too. The Pentagon’s inspector general has warned of “strategic inventory shortfalls” from the munitions spent. The president says the country has “virtually unlimited” ammunition. Both cannot be right, and lawmakers should not have to choose between them on faith. They should get the inventory numbers, in classified session if need be, and they should get them before a vote rather than after one.

Now comes the harder part. The president says the war ends “whenever I want it to end,” and has floated “another little Epic Fury” if Iran does not agree to a deal. Reporting by The New York Times, relayed by CNBC, says American and Israeli forces have planned a short, intensive round of strikes for after the midterms. A government that has quietly drawn up plans for the day after Election Day is a government that does not want voters to weigh them first.

The best argument on the other side deserves a fair hearing. Preventing a nuclear-armed Iran is a legitimate national interest, and no price tag settles whether a particular strike is justified. Deterrence sometimes costs more than anyone wants to say out loud. But that argument is an argument for a debate, not a substitute for one. If the goal is worth $47 billion and more, the administration should be able to say so to Congress and to the public, with the full accounting beside it.

So we ask for the modest things. Publish the complete cost, including base damage. Brief the armed services committees on munitions stocks. Bring any new campaign of strikes to Congress for a vote, and attach the price to the request. Constitutional government is supposed to be slower and noisier than a rally promise. In this case, slower is how the country finds out what it is buying.