With U.N. coalition forces bombarding Libyan leader Muammar el-Qaddafi from the sea and air, the United States’ part in the operation could ultimately hit several billion dollars -- and require the Pentagon to request emergency funding from Congress to pay for it.
The first day of Operation Odyssey Dawn had a price tag that was well over $100 million for the U.S. in missiles alone. And the U.S. military, which remains in the lead now in its third day, has pumped millions more into air- and sea-launched strikes targeting air-defense sites and ground-force positions along Libya’s coastline.
The ultimate total that the United States spends will hinge on the length and scope of the strikes as well as on the contributions of its coalition allies. But Todd Harrison, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, said on Monday that the U.S. costs could “easily pass the $1 billion mark on this operation, regardless of how well things go.”
[...]
"The operation in Libya is being funded with existing resources at this point. We are not planning to request a supplemental at this time," said Kenneth Baer, a spokesman for the Office of Management and Budget.
Extra emphasis on the 'not planning to request emergency supplemental at this time.' When that time comes, you know we'll pony up the dough without hesitation, because there's nothing we like better as Amurikans than pissing billions down a hole in foreign conflicts as we export freedom and democracy and Jesus to the huddled masses. And no one could have predicted that foreign wars cost a lot of fucking money, because we certainly don't have any recent and relevant historical data from which we could derive that conclusion.
And this just cracks me up:
Senate Foreign Relations ranking member Richard Lugar, R-Ind., says Congress should have had the opportunity to weigh in on what he said will be “a very expensive operation, even in a limited way.”
Speaking on CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday, Lugar said, “It’s a strange time in which almost all of our congressional days are spent talking about budget deficits, outrageous problems. And yet [at the] same time, all of this passes.”
I actually have some respect for Sen. Lugar, primarily because he's one of the very few non-batshit Republicans when it comes to foreign policy (I can't really speak to his domestic politics; I'm sure he probably toes that party line). But what does he honestly expect from a group of feckless idiots who spend their time writing letters to the President asking him to do what they should already be doing as legislators:
Dear President Obama:
As the Administration continues to work with Congressional leadership regarding our current budget situation, we write to inform you that we believe comprehensive deficit reduction measures are imperative and to ask you to support a broad approach to solving the problem.
As you know, a bipartisan group of Senators has been working to craft a comprehensive deficit reduction package based upon the recommendations of the Fiscal Commission. While we may not agree with every aspect of the Commission’s recommendations, we believe that its work represents an important foundation to achieve meaningful progress on our debt. The Commission’s work also underscored the scope and breadth of our nation’s long-term fiscal challenges.
They can't be bothered to the lead on the budget, so they sure as hell aren't going to do something as audacious as try to enforce their check on the executive for exercising foreign wars. They didn't even try. I'm pretty sure they all just rushed to the part where they flood cable news to give their uninteresting opinions on the matter. And Democrats are especially guilty of this - most of the time they sit and whine about a lack of leadership from Obama, rather than get off their collective asses and show some leadership of their own.
But back to the price tag of freedom:
Ultimately, the length and scale of the operation -- and of the U.S. role in it -- will be key to how much it costs. A weeklong operation involving a limited number of U.S. troops would be manageable within the existing defense budget. But if Odyssey Dawn drags on for weeks and months, the Pentagon would likely have to do some maneuvering to replenish its accounts.
For now, the United States continues to lead operations, although U.S. military leaders insist that control will soon be transferred to an as-yet unnamed coalition leader.
Complicating matters, however, is the fact that most of the coalition nations’ militaries, which operate on a fraction of the Pentagon’s yearly allowance, are grappling with budget pressures of their own. While the Defense Department hopes to transfer control to coalition partners in the coming days, the longer the operations over Libya continue, the more difficult it will be for allies to take the lead.
“If it goes on more than a month, we’re going to be in the forefront [of operations] or we’re going to let Qaddafi stick around,” predicted former Defense comptroller Zakheim, who served under President George W. Bush. “The choices aren’t very pleasant.”So in the somewhat likely event that this drags on longer than anticipated, and the major players (France, Britain) in our coalition grow uneasy and want to back off, you know who won't hesitate to fill that void.
I know I have beat this point to death, but it just simply amazes me that we continue to finance our prized export of freedom at any cost while basically telling our own citizens to fuck themselves, get used to 9% unemployment, say goodbye to your Social Security because we need to send confidence and warm fuzzies to the free market Jesus, and suck it up and tighten your goddamned belts because all of this is going to be borne on the backs of the lower 90% of the population because we sure as hell aren't raising taxes, ever. It's just disgusting.
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