US Spent About $38B on Iran War in Five Months, CBO Estimates

The CBO's estimate lands in a fiscal environment where deficit financing is already a live political constraint, so the marginal cost of an open-ended commitment becomes a budget question as much as a military one. The two burn-rate scenarios matter more than the headline total: they give Congress a rough price tag for staying in, and the gap between them shows how quickly intensity choices translate into appropriations pressure. Whether the conflict stays at the lower tempo — and whether that estimate survives contact with actual supplemental requests — is the open question.