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Norms Impact

While Cost of Living Soars and Healthcare Taken Away, Trump Spending $1 Billion Per Day in War of Choice With Iran | Common Dreams

Senate Republicans blocked a War Powers check, leaving the president free to run costly hostilities against Iran without the constraint of congressional authorization.

Iran War

Mar 5, 2026

Sources

Summary

A preliminary Pentagon cost estimate puts current U.S. military operations against Iran at $1 billion per day, with early costs since weekend bombing raids exceeding $5 billion. Senate Republicans, joined by Sen. Susan Collins, voted down a War Powers Resolution that would have compelled President Trump to cease the operations. The result is an open-ended expenditure stream for sustained hostilities while domestic healthcare and safety-net funding is being reduced.

Reality Check

Normalizing sustained military operations while Congress declines to enforce War Powers constraints shifts the constitutional balance toward unilateral executive war-making. When lawmakers tolerate open-ended hostilities without compelling limits, we weaken the separation-of-powers guardrail designed to keep force and funding accountable to the public.
This precedent trains future presidents to treat congressional oversight as optional, even as massive spending choices are made in parallel with domestic program cuts. Over time, that erosion makes democratic consent on war and budget priorities harder to reclaim.

Media

Detail

<p>Journalist Nancy Youssef reported, citing a congressional official, that a preliminary Pentagon estimate places the cost of U.S. military operations against Iran at $1 billion per day. The Center for American Progress published an analysis estimating that costs since bombing raids began over the weekend by American and Israeli forces exceed $5 billion.</p><p>In the U.S. Senate, Sen. Susan Collins joined all but one Republican in voting down a War Powers Resolution intended to compel President Trump to cease military operations against Iran. Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz criticized the daily cost and contrasted it with the amount he said was needed to preserve healthcare for more than 2 million Americans.</p><p>The context described includes hospitals facing bankruptcy or closure after Trump signed a spending and tax bill that cut healthcare programs including Medicaid while providing tax breaks for corporations and wealthy individuals.</p>