(WASHINGTON, DC) – Congressman Dennis Moore (Third District-KS) called for the administration to include funding for Operation Iraqi Freedom in the FY2005 budget during a Budget Committee hearing with Joshua B. Bolten, Director of the Office of Management and Budget.

“We as Republicans and Democrats need to come together and put aside partisan politics and say we have a problem in this nation. We have to do something for the future of our kids and our grandkids and our country to make sure we solve this problem,” Moore said. “I voted for the use of force resolution. I voted for the $87 billion supplemental, and I will support our troops. But I don’t like it – with all due respect – when people come in here and say, well, we are not going to tell you how much it is going to cost because we don’t know.”

Moore noted businesses make informed judgments using projections and estimates. The administration should operate in the same manner and provide Congress with a cost estimate of an Iraq supplemental appropriations bill.

“If the estimate is wrong, it is wrong, but it is better than a zero estimate, and that is what we had last year,” Moore said. “Please come back to us as soon as possible with some estimate as to what this continuing conflict in Iraq is going to cost, just an estimate so we can plan. At least give us an estimate between zero and $50 billion of what it is going to cost.”

In addition to Bolton, N. Gregory Mankiw, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, and Peter R. Orszag, a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, testified at the Budget Committee hearing. Moore called their attention to the $7.1 trillion debt in our country and the $521 billion deficit projected for this year. Those figures fail to include any funding for Iraq.

“This budget submission does not deal with the reality of the situation we are facing right now,” Moore said. “I want to stay strong and free, and I think people on both sides of the aisle want that for our country. But a country can’t be free, strong and broke, and that is where we are headed right now if we don’t turn things around.”