Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) delivered his sharpest attack yet on President Donald Trump’s handling of the Iran war on Tuesday, seizing on a newly released Congressional Budget Office analysis to accuse the president of burning through tens of billions of taxpayer dollars on a conflict he says the White House has no strategy to end. The post landed hours after the nonpartisan CBO confirmed the war’s direct cost had climbed past $38 billion, a figure Durbin says is only compounding the pain American families already feel every time they fill up their gas tank.
The Post That Started It
Durbin, a member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, posted the following statement to X at 3:23 PM on September 15, 2026:
“$38 billion.
That is how much of your money the President has spent on his war with Iran—a war he has no idea how to end.
His hubris is costing America billions and forcing families to pay more for everyday essentials.”
What The CBO Actually Found
Durbin’s post was a direct response to a Time report detailing the CBO’s newly released cost assessment, which found the war has cost the U.S. government approximately $38 billion through August 1 and continues to add another $2 billion to $3 billion in expenses every month the conflict drags on. The estimate, requested by House Budget Committee ranking Democrat Brendan Boyle, largely lines up with the $37.5 billion figure Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave Congress back in July, though the CBO’s number is understood to keep climbing as fighting continues.
Where The Money Went
The bulk of the spending, $21.7 billion, comes from replacing munitions expended during the campaign, including $13.1 billion for missile defense interceptors and $7.3 billion for land-attack cruise missiles. The rest is spread across equipment repairs and replacement, increased flying hours, transportation, and higher fuel costs, and notably does not factor in the cost of repairing U.S. bases and facilities damaged by Iranian strikes across the Middle East.
A Stockpile That Could Take Five Years To Rebuild
A separate Defense Department inspector general report, released the day before the CBO’s findings, put the cost of repairing physical damage to U.S. diplomatic facilities in Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE at roughly $184 million, and found the military has spent $22.3 billion on munitions while losing an estimated $3.7 billion in aircraft and equipment. That includes four destroyed F-15 fighter jets, seven destroyed KC-135 tanker aircraft, a dozen more damaged or destroyed, and the loss of as many as 30 MQ-9 Reaper drones. The CBO warned that rebuilding the stockpiles the war has depleted could take five years or longer, meaning the true cost of the conflict may not be known for years.
Inflation And Gas Prices Behind Durbin’s Anger
The CBO projects the war will add roughly half a percentage point to inflation in the first quarter of 2027, driven largely by disruptions to oil and gas shipments through the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea. Inflation has already climbed to an annual rate of 3.4% in August, up from 2.4% in February, right around when the war began. At the pump, the national average price of regular gasoline hit $4.33 a gallon on Tuesday, up from $4.01 a month earlier, while diesel has surpassed $6 a gallon, and the Energy Department projects prices will stay close to $4 for the rest of the year.
Not Durbin’s First Warning
Tuesday’s post is the latest in a months-long campaign by Durbin to force the administration to answer for the war’s mounting cost. Back in May, Durbin pressed Defense Secretary Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman General Caine on the rationale for the war as gas prices climbed, at a time when the total cost stood at roughly $29 billion.
In July, after Hegseth told the Senate Appropriations Committee the war had cost $37.5 billion, Durbin took to the floor again to slam the administration’s request for an additional $88 billion in supplemental funding, noting the Pentagon was already sitting on more than $75 billion in unspent money.
Even earlier, in April, Durbin delivered a Senate floor speech invoking his own two-decade-old work on Iran sanctions legislation, arguing the administration lacks the coherent exit strategy that past diplomatic pressure once produced.
Democrats Seize On The Report
Durbin isn’t alone in using the CBO’s findings to press the administration. Rep. Brendan Boyle, who requested the analysis, said the report makes clear the war has cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars and counting while continuing to drive up prices, arguing Republicans could find “tens of billions of dollars, and potentially much more, for a reckless war” even as they claim there’s no money for domestic priorities.
The Fight Over More Money
The CBO’s accounting arrives as Congress remains at an impasse over funding the war going forward. The White House requested an additional $67.1 billion for the Pentagon earlier this summer, while House Republicans have advanced a broader $73 billion defense and intelligence funding framework. Democrats have pushed back, saying they still lack a clear picture of how long the war will last or what it will ultimately cost, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune has indicated the chamber has no plans to take up the funding package before the midterm elections.
The White House Pushes Back
The administration has not held back in responding to Durbin’s criticism. After the senator pushed for a “coherent exit plan” from the war in recent weeks, the White House’s rapid response account fired back on social media, telling Durbin “You’re a moron, Dick,” and accusing him of amplifying Iranian talking points about the conflict.
A President Whose Timeline Keeps Moving
Trump has repeatedly asked Americans to accept higher prices as the cost of keeping Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, but his timeline for ending the war has shifted considerably since it began. In March, he called the conflict a “short-term excursion” that would be over “soon.” Last week, speaking at a Republican convention in Dallas, he said the war would end “immediately after” the midterm elections instead.
What Comes Next
With the war entering its seventh month, oil prices holding above $100 a barrel amid continued disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz and Houthi strikes on Saudi energy infrastructure, and Congress still gridlocked over supplemental funding, the CBO’s report is likely to become a central talking point heading into the midterms. For Durbin, the message on Tuesday was simple: the president’s war has a real dollar figure attached now, and voters are the ones paying it at the register and the pump.