Iran war has cost U.S. $38 billion over five months, congressional study finds

JUST IN: The US war with Iran has cost taxpayers $38 billion over its first five months, a congressional study finds, with expenses forecast to keep rising by $2-3 billion each additional month.

Thirty eight billion dollars. That's the bill for five months of war with Iran, according to a new Congressional Budget Office study.

The letter went to Brendan Boyle, the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, and it counts the direct costs only. Replacing spent munitions, equipment lost in battle, extra flying hours, fuel. It tracks almost exactly with what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Congress back in July, when he put the figure at thirty seven and a half billion.

And it doesn't stop there. The CBO says every additional month of fighting adds at least two to three billion more. It also forecasts the war will push inflation up about half a percentage point by early next year, so the cost reaches your grocery bill, not just the Pentagon's.

Five months in, no end date, and the meter is running at up to a hundred million dollars a day.

This is Sara White, reporting for HIT.