Democrats link cost of Iran war to domestic priorities

Democrats have spent much of the last year attacking the Republican Party over spending cuts in health care programs such as Obamacare and Medicaid.

They now link this fight to the debate over the war in Iran, saying the conflict is burning up public money that could have been spent on national priorities.

“They said the first week of the war cost $11 billion. With that $11 billion, we could fix a lot of health care,” Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, said Thursday. “This has gone too far, with too much chaos, too little thought, and it’s hurting America.”

Democrats are grasping this message with the midterm elections in mind.

They are betting that the American people view the assault on Iran as a self-imposed war or a potential “forever war” that contravenes Mr. Trump’s election pledge to put America first.

The Republican Party clings to a three-seat majority in the House and a 53-47 advantage in the Senate, giving Democrats hope they can flip at least one chamber.

Focusing on costs allows Democrats to talk about the so-called affordability crisis that has animated the recent election.

“It’s a typical guns-versus-bush debate. The more money the United States spends on the Iran war, the less money it has for health care, education and transportation,” said Darrell West, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution. “This is a clear compromise that allows Democrats to say Trump is neglecting domestic needs while pursuing a foreign war that drives up energy costs. »

The economic focus also allows Democrats to return to their political comfort zone: health care.

Democrats’ efforts to restore Obamacare’s oversized subsidies led to a lengthy government shutdown last fall, and they say the Medicaid cuts in the Republican Party’s One Big Beautiful Bill will hurt rural and high-need hospitals. Public opinion polls show generally positive views of Obamacare and disapproval of the war in Iran.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Republicans can fund the war in Iran, “but they can’t find a dime to make it affordable for the American people to see a doctor when they need it.”

“I can’t find a dime to make it easier for hard-working Americans to buy their first home,” the New York Democrat said at a news conference at the Capitol last week. “And they can’t find a dime to reduce the grocery bills of the American people.”

Mr. Trump says he decided to join forces with Israel and launch the operation against Iran on February 28 because he wanted to dismantle Iran’s missile program, prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons and end Tehran’s support for terrorist proxies in the Middle East.

Mr. Trump said the costs of war, including soaring oil prices, are a “small price to pay” for achieving those goals.

He also said the U.S. war effort was ahead of schedule and that he believed economic shocks would be short-lived.

“It will bounce back as soon as this is over, and I don’t think it’s going to last long,” Mr. Trump said in a radio interview Friday with Fox News host Brian Kilmeade.

He declared that the war would be over “when I feel it in my bones.”

The Democratic National Committee estimated that the war cost $6 billion in the first two days alone, “enough to cover a full year of health care for nearly 660,000 Medicaid enrollees.”

Among the lawmakers, Sen. Elizabeth Warren said it would cost about $30 billion to extend Obamacare’s enhanced subsidies for another year. At the same time, the administration said it would need an additional $50 billion to finance the war.

“Instead of going to war with Iran, we could cover health care for millions of Americans,” Ms. Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, said on X. “And we would still have $20 billion left.”

Rep. Brendan Boyle, Democrat of Pennsylvania and ranking member of the House Budget Committee, asked the Congressional Budget Office to provide an estimate of the total cost and economic disruption related to the war.

“Congress,” he wrote in a letter, “should ensure that we spend taxpayer dollars to improve the quality of life for the American people, not to finance another endless war in the Middle East.” »

Political analysts said they expect Democrats to focus on domestic priorities as the war continues, although their lines of attack could shift. For example, if oil prices continue to rise, that will lead to higher gasoline prices, and Democrats might focus on that rather than health care priorities.

The national average price of a gallon of gasoline has climbed to more than $3.60, up from less than $3 a month ago, according to the AAA auto club.

As it stands, Democrats are focusing on “general discontent with the war as a diversion of resources from domestic needs, and more localized suffering caused to groups such as farmers,” said Ross Baker, a politics professor at Rutgers University. “The real pitchforks are still in the barn.”