A Republican congressman has a solution to the Pentagon’s $200 billion price tag for the Iran war: send the bill to the country America is bombing.
Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Perry appeared on CNN on Thursday after the Department of Defense requested supplemental funds to keep President Donald Trump’s war on Iran going.
The conflict has been eating up roughly $1 billion a day since it launched on Feb. 28, and has killed almost 1,500 Iranians. Asked by anchor Kaitlan Collins whether he would support the appropriation, Perry said he wanted to see details, suggested the figure was a negotiating opener—and then proposed that Iran itself foot the bill.
“I would actually like to see Iran pay for this, whether it’s $20 billion or $200 billion, whatever it is,” Perry said. “Look, they’ve been at war with us for 47 years, and it’s finally being ended by the president, which is awesome, but it comes at a cost. And they have resources. They have been siphoning those resources away from their population for those four and a half, five decades.”
He continued: “Certainly, they could pay that bill pretty quickly once things get up and running. And the ayatollah is no longer in charge. So I think that’s an option that we need to pursue as well.”
Collins, taken aback, pressed him. “You want to see whatever this costs the U.S. taxpayer, whatever the Pentagon does come to you and asks for, to be offset by Iran?” she asked.
“Well, I think we gotta pay for this somehow, right?” Perry replied, before insisting that Iran—not the United States—started the war. “I don’t see any reason why the people that started this war—it’s not the United States of America—it’s Iran.”
Collins was unconvinced. “I don’t think anyone thinks that Iran’s actually gonna pay $200 billion to offset the cost,” she said.
Perry acknowledged the obvious. “Yeah, right now, Iran’s not gonna pay for it,” he said—before clarifying that his plan hinges on regime change. “But under a different paradigm where the ayatollah’s not in charge, and we have a different system of governance.”
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed on the first day of Operation Epic Fury. Iran has since named his son Mojtaba as his successor, although he is said to have been seriously injured in the strike that killed his father.
Meanwhile, not all Republicans are happy with Trump’s grovelling for more cash. “I will not vote for a war supplemental,” Colorado congresswoman Lauren Boebert told CNN reporter Manu Raju on Capitol Hill on Thursday.
“No. I am a ‘no.’ I’ve already told leadership. I am a ‘no’ on any war supplementals. I am so tired of spending money elsewhere. I am tired of the industrial-war complex getting all of our hard-earned tax dollars. I have folks in Colorado who can’t afford to live. We need America First policies right now, and that? I’m not doing that.”
