June 2, 2004

BY ALAN FRAM

WASHINGTON -- Even by standards here, the $119.4 billion that President Bush and Congress have provided for the first two years of the war in Iraq is real money.

It dwarfs the $100 million that could hire 2,500 more airport security screeners, the $500 million that could add 69,400 more children to Head Start, the $1 billion that would let 160,000 more low-income families keep federal rent subsidies, Senate Democrats say. Or it could reduce the runaway federal deficit.

The $119.4 billion, compiled by the White House Office of Management and Budget, is the administration's most comprehensive tally of the war's financial costs. Of the total, $97.2 billion has been for military operations, $21.2 billion for rebuilding Iraq's economy and government, and $1 billion for U.S. administrative expenses there.

Congress approved the money over the past year and a half with overwhelming votes and few lawmakers doubt its need. But many of them say it soaks up dollars that other parts of the $2.4 trillion budget could use, from education initiatives to tax cuts and more.

''When you integrate Iraqi spending, which is necessary, with the effort to control spending, it puts more pressure on you to make harder choices,'' said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). ''If you can name one part of government immune from this, I'd like to know.''

If not used for war, the money could take a healthy bite out of the government's annual deficits, which are expected to set a record this year exceeding $400 billion. The $119.4 billion is four times this year's federal spending for biomedical research, 14 times what Washington will spend to clean the environment, 26 times the FBI's budget.

Lawrence Lindsey, then the White House economic adviser, estimated before the Iraq war that it could cost $100 billion to $200 billion. Other administration officials called the figure far too large and argued that Iraq's oil revenues would let the country largely rebuild itself.

By the time the final Iraq figure for 2005 is in, American spending there could easily exceed $160 billion for 2003 through 2005. That would nearly double the combined costs, in today's dollars, of the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the Civil War and the Spanish-American War.

AP