Trump's Troops at Mexico Border Could Cost $10 Million a Day [View all]

[DonViejo]

November 2, 2018
Roxana Tiron & Robert Levinson

Former defense chief slams using soldiers as `political pawns’

Daily price tag varies based on housing, food, operations

President Donald Trump’s plan to deploy about 7,000 active-duty troops to the border with Mexico could cost between $3 million to $5 million a day at a minimum, and that could double if the number reaches 15,000.

The bill can vary, and can potentially go up, depending on per-diem costs afforded to military personnel on travel, operational expenses such as the amount of fuel used, medical supplies distributed and flight hours logged on helicopters. The personnel costs, which are the priciest, are already funded as part of the regular fiscal 2019 Pentagon budget.

While the Pentagon has yet to provide a tally, an examination of Congressional Budget Office data and Pentagon travel cost information suggests Trump’s plan to dispatch 15,000 troops could run to at least $6.1 million to $10.2 million a day in personnel costs, Bloomberg Government estimates.

Trump has announced the deployment of thousands of troops to the U.S. border just days before the midterm elections on Nov. 6 in response to caravans of Central American migrants still a thousand miles away. The move has inflamed some prominent Democrats in Congress who have raised alarms that it could come at a high cost both financially and in terms of military readiness.

The administration has failed to “provide a full accounting of the financial costs of this deployment as well as the impacts it will have on any ongoing military missions,” Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement.

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