Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) is spearheading a request to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to calculate the cost of the Iran conflict, claiming that the Trump Administration has not provided a clear, accurate answer.
"The American people deserve to know the true costs of this conflict, and they deserve transparency and honesty when their government commits the nation to war," Sen. Kelly wrote in a letter. "It is essential that Congress and the American public receive accurate, comprehensive estimates of the costs of the war in Iran."
Sen. Kelly's press release includes numerous sources detailing how "Operation Epic Fury," the primary drone striking campaign conducted against Iran, was initially estimated to have cost $25 billion, only to be revised to $29 billion weeks later.
Allegations that $2 billion a day was being spent on the conflict later surfaced, after damaged or destroyed equipment and infrastructure were taken into account, bringing the estimated cost up to $40-50 billion.
Some analysts have posited that the cost could be as high as $72 billion, a number that comes as the Trump Administration is set to request up to $200 billion in additional funding on top of the already massive $1.2 trillion defense budget.
"[CBO's] timely and comprehensive estimate of the immediate and long-term budgetary consequences will help ensure that the Iran war remains subject to rigorous and appropriate legislative oversight," the Arizona Senator concluded.
Kelly has been a critic of the Trump Administration's handling of the Iran conflict, previously demanding answers on why oil sanctions on Russia were temporarily lifted. At the end of March, he said, "These actions speak once again to the troubling lack of strategic foresight that has marked your administration's decision-making prior to and during its war of choice with Iran, jeopardizing the lives of our servicemembers across the region and raising costs for Americans here at home."
