Wampum

Unlucky Larry

New York Times, December 31, 2002:

The administration's top budget official estimated Monday that the cost of a war with Iraq could be in the range of $50 billion to $60 billion, a figure that is well below earlier estimates from White House officials.

In an interview, Mitchell E. Daniels Jr., director of the Office of Management and Budget, would not provide specific costs for either a long or a short campaign against Saddam Hussein. But he said the administration was budgeting for both, and that earlier projections of $100 billion to $200 billion in Iraq war costs by Lawrence B. Lindsey, President Bush's former chief economic adviser, were too high.

NPR, February 26, 2003:

The Bush administration has been decidedly vague about how much a war with Iraq might cost. When pressed, officials have said less than $50 billion. Last year, White House economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey caused a stir when he put the price tag at between 100 and 200 billion at best. The administration dismissed the figure, and Lindsey was soon fired.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer, January 26, 2005:

Yesterday the president's budget team told Congress that $80 billion more will be needed to pay for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Just last summer, Congress approved $25 billion for the wars, pushing the total above $300 billion.

Lindsey was way too low in his estimate of the cost of the war. Let it no longer be said that Larry Lindsey was fired for accurately estimating the costs of the Iraq war. He is not that lucky.

Neither are we.

Posted by Dwight Meredith at January 26, 2005 08:33 PM | TrackBack