It’s Not America’s Bill to Pay

President Bush is planning to ask the new Congress that convenes in January for between $12 billion and $20 billion to help fund the coming year’s military operations in the Persian Gulf. That could be just the first installment on a bill that congressional sources say may hit $30 billion, or even more if war breaks out. Each of those billions must be raised by more federal borrowing. Each will add yet more red ink to what the Congressional Budget Office now estimates will be at least a $253-billion deficit in the current fiscal year.

Contributions from friendly states to the anti-Iraq effort are also expected. That includes a pledged $2.5 billion from Kuwait, $1 billion from the United Arab Emirates, $2 billion from Japan, $1.1 billion from Germany and $95 million from South Korea. Saudi Arabia will continue to provide food, fuel, water facilities and transportation, the total value of which isn’t known. Overall, about $7 billion in non-U.S. support is expected.

It’s not enough. It is in fact almost insultingly inadequate.

The United States is providing about 80% of the personnel and most of the arms to the U.N.-backed move to repel Saddam Hussein’s aggression. It is unacceptable that American taxpayers, now and for generations to come, should also be expected to shoulder the burden of still greater deficits to finance this enterprise.

Who should pay? Those states that most benefit from the containment of Iraqi expansionism, which happily happen to be those same gulf states whose revenues--Kuwait is an exception--have soared since Aug. 2 because of higher oil prices. Saudi Arabia alone now earns well over $200 million a day from selling more oil at higher prices.

There’s no question that these states can afford to pick up a far greater share of the costs that are now about to fall on American taxpayers. The U.S. military presence in no small part aims not just at restoring Kuwait’s independence, but also at securing the political survival of the rulers of Saudi Arabia and its smaller neighbors. Congress should insist, if the Bush Administration won’t, that the costs for all this be paid mainly by those who have found security behind the bulwark of Desert Shield.