Americans ‘paying’ for Iran war with higher costs: Senate Democrat

Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) said Sunday that the American people are paying the price of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran on multiple fronts.

“There’s a reason why Donald Trump is not coming before the American people for approval for this war,” Kim told host Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union.” 

“It’s because he knows what the American people feel, which is that they don’t want this, that they want a government that is focused on them, lowering costs,” he added. “And not only is he not lowering our costs. He’s increasing it. And now it’s the American people that are paying for this Iran war.”

Since the U.S. and Israel began striking Iran on Feb. 28, the latter’s government has retaliated by restricting shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. 

That has resulted in oil prices rising globally, with Americans seeing a subsequent increase at the pump. The national average price of a gallon of regular gas is $3.98 as of Sunday, nearly $1 more than a month ago, according to AAA.

The price of other commodities shipped through the waterway, including fertilizer, has also increased amid the war. As of last Wednesday, prices for six of the eight major fertilizers were higher than they were a month prior, according to sellers surveyed by DTN. 

Pentagon officials also told lawmakers earlier this month that the first six days alone of “Operation Epic Fury” cost more than $11.3 billion, a source briefed on the matter told The Hill. The Defense Department also sent a $200 billion supplemental funding request for the war to the White House, which is yet to ask Congress for more money. 

Roughly 2,000 U.S. troops from the Army’s elite 82nd Airborne Division are also heading to the Middle East, joining the roughly 50,000 American service members already in the region, a source familiar with the matter told The Hill last Tuesday.

The Wall Street Journal also reported Thursday that the Pentagon is weighing whether to send up to 10,000 additional ground troops to the Middle East. The Washington Post, meanwhile, reported Saturday that the Pentagon is actively preparing for ground operations in Iran, which could last weeks.

Any deployment of troops would need the president’s approval, and it’s unclear whether he has weighed in on any ongoing preparations.

When Tapper asked Kim about the Journal report, the Democratic senator and former State Department official replied that “this is honestly one of the most consequential moments that I have ever seen in my time in government, not just in Congress, but before when I worked in national security.”

“This is something that will only prolong it and increase the risk at a time that we have seen, already, so many service members put at harm’s way and this administration not giving them everything that they need,” he said of a ground operation in Iran. 

Filip Timotija contributed reporting.

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