WASHINGTON – The United States is shelling out up to $30 million a day to battle Yugoslav strongman Slobodan Milosevic, spending that threatens the budget surplus and plans for an election-year tax cut.
Although the Pentagon refuses to put a price tag on the war, private analysts say taxpayers could spend $2 billion if the conflict drags on.
“These airstrikes are costing us on the order of $20 to $30 million each day,” said Steven Kosiak, director of budget studies for the non-partisan Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment.
“We could easily be looking at several billion if we go with a ground campaign,” added Kosiak.
Whatever the figure, the cost will certainly be only a tiny portion of the $111 billion federal surplus the Congressional Budget Office expects this year.
But that surplus comes entirely from the Social Security trust fund – money congressional Republicans have pledged not to use for anything other than helping senior citizens.
“They’re kind of stuck on their own rhetoric here,” said Richard May, a consultant and former GOP staff director of the House Budget Committee.
And if the conflict drags on, it could shrink Republican plans for a modest $15 billion tax cut in the year 2000, when presidential and congressional elections will be held.
Why does the war in Yugoslavia cost so much?
F-117 stealth fighter jets cost $45 million each – and the United States already has lost one in combat.
Special tank-busting bombs go for about $300,000 each, while the Tomahawk cruise missiles that have been flying across the skies of Yugoslavia run $1 million or $2 million apiece, depending on whether they are air- or land-launched.
Then, you have to factor in the cost to the United States of flying 20,000 Kosovo refugees from makeshift camps in Albania to a dusty naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, a plan President Clinton announced this week.
“The Albania-to-Cuba flight path is not one where we’ll be able to get a frequent-flier discount,” joked John Pike, a defense analyst for the Federation of American Scientists.
Assuming flights for each refugee run about $1,000 apiece, sending everyone to Cuba will cost $20 million – $40 million if you include flying them back to Kosovo once the fighting ends, Pike said.
He also pointed out that deploying troops is always an expensive proposition.
“War is 10 times more expensive than peace,” Pike said.
On the bright side, the cost could go down if the airstrikes are successful and Milosevic agrees to the terms of the peace treaty negotiated in France earlier this year.
That’s because the terms call for a troop presence on the ground, but without airplanes, missiles, helicopters and other equipment.
“It’s not going to be cheap, but it would probably be a lot cheaper than what it’s costing us right now,” Pike said.