
Entry 072Mar 27, 2003
“We're dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon.”72
72Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy Secretary of Defense, House Appropriations Committee hearing on the FY2003 war supplemental, March 27, 2003. Source
Why it’s on the record. Seven months later, Congress passed an $87 billion supplemental that included about $18.4 billion for Iraq reconstruction. Total U.S. reconstruction spending eventually reached about $60 billion.
On the record
During the first week of the invasion, Wolfowitz told appropriators that Iraqi oil money, not U.S. taxpayers, would pay to rebuild Iraq.
- Said by
- Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy Secretary of Defense
- Where
- House Appropriations Committee hearing on the FY2003 war supplemental
- When
- Mar 27, 2003
- Source
- House Appropriations Committee hearing on the FY2003 war supplemental, March 27, 2003