Iran war cost US $38B, CBO reports
The U.S. war against Iran has cost the Department of Defense more than $38 billion through Aug. 1, according to an assessment released Tuesday by the Congressional Budget Office. The nonpartisan budget office said the war will continue costing up to $3 billion a month or more, depending on the intensity of the conflict.
The CBO said the war is expected to contribute to inflation into the first quarter of 2027, making inflation roughly 0.5 percentage points higher than previously estimated. The increase is driven largely by the reduction of oil and natural gas shipments through the Strait of Hormuz and disruptions to shipping through the Red Sea.
The estimate was prepared in response to a request from Rep. Brendan Boyle, the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee. It largely aligns with an estimate from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who pinned the costs at $37.5 billion in Senate testimony.
The estimates cover replacing munitions and equipment lost in battle. They do not include costs related to U.S. military personnel killed or injured in the conflict, or longer-term veterans’ healthcare and disability compensation.
“This nonpartisan CBO report makes clear that the war has also cost American taxpayers tens of billions of dollars and counting, while continuing to drive up costs,” Boyle said.
“Donald Trump and Republicans have spent years telling Americans that we cannot afford to help families here at home,” Boyle said in a statement, “but apparently they can find tens of billions of dollars, and potentially much more, for a reckless war that is leaving Americans to pay the price.”
The war, which started Feb. 28, is now in its seventh month, with no signs of a quick end to the on-off conflict. The findings come as voters eye the war and high prices heading toward midterm elections that will determine control of Congress, where Republicans now hold majority power in the House and Senate.
The White House made a request for $87.6 billion in supplemental funding in June, largely for the war effort, but Congress has not approved it. CBO said the portion of that request that appears to be directly related to the conflict, $42.3 billion, is about 10% larger than CBO’s estimate of the Defense Department’s costs.
The Defense Department declined to respond to CBO’s request for information for its report, which the budget office said was a break from norms. CBO said it relied on government databases and public reports, and as a result, its estimates “are subject to considerable uncertainty.”
A Pentagon inspector general report Monday said the war has resulted in “strategic inventory shortfalls.”
