I would like to say something about the use of the "emergency supplemental" vehicle for funding the war. In my opinion as a budgeting professor, this is not the best way for the US budget system - or any budget system - to operate. The purpose of the emergency supplemental facility is to fund a genuine emergency or unforeseen event, such as Hurricane Katrina.

The late transmittal of the supplementals during the budget process leads to less congressional review and a lower standard of detailed budget justification than regular appropriations. It is difficult to understand why, five years into the war, we are still funding it largely in this manner. We are denying the budget staff of both parties, who are some of the very best staff members in the Congress - the budget committees, the authorizing committees, and the appropriations committees - the opportunity to review these numbers thoroughly. So it is not surprising, given this lack of transparency, that we have seen widespread waste and alleged corruption in payments to contractors, a lack of timely requests for vital equipment such as MRAPs, and continuing shortfalls in critical areas such as veteran's health care.

Despite the fact that the military "family" mourns the loss of its soldiers, the official budgetary cost for a soldier's death is $500,000 paid to the soldier's family. This amount is a small fraction of the value used in even the narrowest economic estimates - and much lower than the $6-$7.5 million range used by civilian government agencies.

In many cases, the dead were young men and women in peak physical condition, at the beginning of their working lives. Their true economic value could easily have been much higher.

Using a VSL of $7 million, the economic cost of the more than 4,000 American deaths in Iraq and exceeds $30 billion. And while it seems harsh to convert these deaths into cold financial numbers, at the same time it is important to recognize that our economy will suffer as a result of the fatalities in this war.

The repeated tours of duty have imposed an enormous emotional, social and economic strain on the individuals serving and their families. When a service member is critically wounded, friends and family members put their lives on hold. This puts enormous financial and emotional strain on their loved ones. Current law offers caregivers few employment protections, so they not infrequently lose their jobs and suffer financial consequences. The Dole-Shalala Commission estimated that 20% of families of veterans who were wounded, injured or otherwise incapacitated (such as with mental illness) have been forced to leave their employment in order to become full time caretakers.

We are in the process of estimating some of the economic costs to the families of having to sacrifice their income and jobs, some of the additional health care costs that families and society will incur in caring for seriously injured veterans. We believe this will impose an economic cost in excess of $40 billion.

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