On April 23, 2003, Andew Natsios, the administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, unequivocally told Ted Koppel on
Nightline that the United States was going to spend
no more than $1.7 billion max to rebuild Iraq. An excerpt:
TED KOPPEL
(Off Camera) . . . I want to be sure that I understood you correctly. You're saying the, the top cost for the US taxpayer will be $1.7 billion. No more than that?
ANDREW NATSIOS
For the reconstruction. And then there's 700 million in the supplemental budget for humanitarian relief, which we don't competitively bid 'cause it's charities that get that money.
TED KOPPEL
(Off Camera) I understand. But as far as reconstruction goes, the American taxpayer will not be hit for more than $1.7 billion no matter how long the process takes?
ANDREW NATSIOS
That is our plan and that is our intention. And these figures, outlandish figures I've seen, I have to say, there's a little bit of hoopla involved in this.
Calpundit (from whom I stole this story) reports that for some strange reason this transcript apparently is no longer on the USAID's website. Surprise, surprise. He got it from the Google cache. Thank heaven for Google.