Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, on Wednesday put a new price tag on the war with Iran, telling Americans in a post on X that the Pentagon has now spent more than $38 billion fighting the conflict while U.S. drivers have absorbed roughly $100 billion more in extra fuel costs — and he used the moment to renew his call for Republicans to help end the war.
The Post
Warner published the statement on X at 3:13 p.m. on September 16, 2026. His post read, in full:
“New analyses show the Pentagon has spent $38 billion+ on this war… on top of the $100 billion in extra fuel costs Americans have spent on gas.
Every day, those costs spike higher and higher.
Democrats have voted time and time again to end this war. Republicans need to join us.”
A Mounting Bill at the Pentagon
The $38 billion figure Warner cited traces directly to a Congressional Budget Office report released Tuesday, one day before his post. CBO found that as of August 1, 2026, the war against Iran — which the Trump administration has designated Operation Epic Fury — had cost the Department of Defense approximately $38 billion, a total covering replaced munitions and equipment lost in combat, additional flying hours, and increased fuel expenditures for military operations. The nonpartisan agency noted the figure does not include the cost of rebuilding U.S. facilities in the Middle East damaged by Iranian strikes, meaning the true toll to taxpayers is likely higher.
Notably Consistent With Pentagon’s Own Testimony
CBO’s estimate lines up closely with what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told the Senate Appropriations Committee in July, when he put the war’s cost at $37.5 billion. The budget office noted its own figure was derived largely from public reporting because the Defense Department “did not respond to CBO’s requests for information,” an acknowledgment that added to long-running complaints from lawmakers, including Warner, that the administration has withheld basic cost data from Congress.
The Hidden Tax at the Pump
The second number in Warner’s post — the roughly $100 billion in extra fuel costs shouldered by American consumers — reflects the broader economic fallout CBO also detailed. The agency found that disruptions to oil and natural gas shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, combined with attacks disrupting shipping through the Red Sea, have pushed global energy prices higher and driven up the cost of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel nationwide. National gas prices climbed above $4 a gallon heading into Labor Day 2026, a level GasBuddy said had never before been reached during that holiday weekend, as the war entered its seventh month.
Inflation Still Climbing, CBO Warns
CBO’s analysis projected that the war’s effect on energy prices will keep pushing inflation higher well into next year. The agency now estimates that inflation in the personal consumption expenditures price index will run 0.5 percentage points higher in the first quarter of 2027 than it projected before the war began, with core inflation — which excludes food and energy — running 0.3 points higher. The report also found that higher energy prices contributed an estimated 2.3 percentage points to the annualized inflation rate in the second quarter of 2026 alone, a quarter in which overall inflation hit 5.3 percent.
Costs Set to Keep Climbing
CBO did not treat the $38 billion figure as a ceiling. The agency estimated that if the conflict’s intensity stays as low as it was in May and June, the Pentagon will spend an additional $2 billion per month; if fighting escalates to levels seen in July, that number rises to $3 billion per month, with the possibility of even steeper costs if violence intensifies further. That open-ended trajectory is the backdrop for the line in Warner’s post warning that “every day, those costs spike higher and higher.”
Warner’s Long-Standing Opposition to the War
Wednesday’s post is consistent with a position Warner has held publicly since the earliest days of U.S. military action against Iran. After the administration’s initial strikes on Iranian nuclear infrastructure, Warner released a statement on his official Senate website saying, “Article I of the Constitution is clear: the power to declare war belongs to Congress. Any decision by a president to commit the U.S. military to hostilities must be done in accordance with the Constitution and existing laws and statutes.” He added that the administration’s “complete lack of consultation ahead of the operation, combined with its lack of objective transparency since, in no way suggest a clearheaded and strategic plan for navigating this in the long term.”
Congress Has Twice Tried and Failed to End the War
Warner’s reference to Democrats voting “time and time again” to end the war points to a series of War Powers Resolution votes that have repeatedly split the Senate along party lines. On March 4, 2026, a resolution led by Sen. Tim Kaine failed on a 47-53 vote, with nearly every Republican opposed and nearly every Democrat in favor. At the 60-day mark of the war, Sens. Adam Schiff and Chuck Schumer led a second attempt, which Senate Republicans again blocked in a procedural vote, prompting Kaine to say Congress was “abdicating their most solemn constitutional responsibility to decide whether to send our nation’s sons and daughters into war.”
Republicans Have Held Firm Behind the White House
Republican leaders have largely stood behind the administration’s approach throughout the conflict. When the Pentagon sought an additional $200 billion in war funding in March, Hegseth told reporters “it takes money to kill bad guys,” and President Trump defended the scale of the request by saying, “We’re asking for a lot of reasons, beyond even what we’re talking about in Iran, when this is a very volatile world.” That request came weeks into the war, on top of the roughly $856 billion already authorized for the Pentagon’s fiscal year 2026 budget.
The Administration’s Larger Supplemental Request
Separate from the $200 billion request reported in March, the CBO report notes that the administration formally asked Congress in June for $87.6 billion in supplemental appropriations, of which $67.1 billion was earmarked for the Pentagon. CBO determined that roughly $42.3 billion of that request was directly tied to the Iran conflict — about 10 percent above the agency’s own $38 billion cost estimate for the war through August 1.
An Opportunity Cost Beyond Dollars
CBO’s report also flagged a cost that cannot be measured in appropriations bills alone: the heavy use of missile defense interceptors during the conflict, which the agency said will leave the United States with a reduced interceptor inventory for years to come. CBO specifically warned that the shortfall “would become especially problematic if a conflict arose with an opponent whose arsenal included large numbers of ballistic and cruise missiles,” naming China’s arsenal as a particular concern given its relevance to any future conflict over Taiwan.
Interest Rates and the Federal Budget Also Affected
Beyond consumer prices, CBO found that the war-driven rise in inflation has pushed up interest rates on short-term Treasury securities, which it estimated were nearly 0.2 percentage points higher in 2026 than the agency had projected before the war began. The agency said the combined effects of higher inflation and higher interest rates on federal revenue and spending were roughly offsetting, with higher inflation boosting revenue even as higher interest costs and mandatory spending increased outlays.
Costs the Government Still Cannot Fully Count
CBO acknowledged significant gaps in its own accounting, saying it was unable to estimate potential additional costs tied to diplomatic operations and foreign aid connected to the war, costs the agency said “would be diffuse and would depend on the outcome of the conflict.” Analysts and lawmakers have separately noted that CBO’s $38 billion figure excludes the cost of repairing U.S. facilities across the Middle East damaged by Iranian strikes, a bill some experts believe could add billions more depending on how extensively the government chooses to rebuild.
A Political Argument as Much as a Budget One
Warner’s post frames the war’s cost not simply as a fiscal matter but as a test of Republican willingness to break with the administration. By pairing the Pentagon’s direct spending with the indirect burden on drivers at the pump, Warner is arguing that the war is costing ordinary Americans money twice over — once through appropriated taxpayer dollars and again through everyday costs of living. That argument echoes the message other Senate Democrats, including Kaine and Schumer, have made in prior war powers debates, when they cast the conflict as a “war of choice” without a clearly stated endpoint.
What Comes Next
With the war now well past its sixth month and CBO projecting further monthly costs of $2 billion to $3 billion for as long as hostilities continue, the political fight over funding and congressional authorization shows no sign of resolution. Congress faces continued decisions on the administration’s supplemental funding requests in the months ahead, and Democrats, led by voices like Warner, Kaine and Schumer, are expected to continue pressing for further War Powers Resolution votes as the war’s price tag keeps climbing.