Senator Murray Grills Hegseth on Iran War, Trump’s Astronomical $1.5 Trillion War Budget, and Spending Priorities

Pressed by Murray on Trump's comments that the U.S. can't afford child care or health care-only fighting wars, Hegseth defends Trump's budget request: "I certainly support this."

ICYMI : Senator Murray on President Trump's FY27 Budget Request

***WATCH: Senator Murray's full questioning***

Washington, D.C. - Today-at a Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee hearing on the FY27 budget request for the Department of Defense (DoD)-U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, questioned Secretary Pete Hegseth on the extraordinary cost of the Iran war, the president's astronomical $1.5 trillion defense budget, and the administration's position that there is no money for child care but plenty of money for war.

[INCREASING COSTS OF WAR WITH IRAN]

Senator Murray began her questioning by pressing Secretary Hegseth about the cost of the war with Iran, noting how the war has cost servicemembers their lives and cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars and counting. Acting Comptroller Jules W. Hurst III also responded to Senator Murray's questions about the damage to U.S. facilities in the war with Iran.

MURRAY: Mr. Secretary, the war in Iran has not only cost 13 American servicemembers lives, it is also costing American taxpayers dearly. Tens of billions of dollars and counting-and that's money that could be helping people perhaps get health care, but instead we're paying for bombs dropped in a war that American people overwhelmingly oppose.

Now, earlier this morning, I know that your team testified Trump's war with Iran cost $29 billion so far. That is $29 billion blown on a war of choice-and that's what it would have cost actually to save the ACA tax credits. But, as my colleagues have already stated, what is concerning as well is it seems quite clear that cost estimate is suspiciously low.

Now, your acting comptroller suggested that damage to U.S. facilities was not factored into that figure. It is clear that there has been extensive damage to American military assets. New reporting from the Washington Post and others indicates that Iran has hit at least 228 structures or pieces of equipment at U.S. military sites.

Can you tell us what the cost of damage done to U.S. facilities is because of this war is?

HEGSETH: Well, I think Jay covered pretty clearly what we can or cannot share, but I would simply respond that, and I think it's an important point considering what the president is undertaking, is what is the cost of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon and the fact that this president has been willing to make a historic and courageous choice to confront that, it comes with costs, and we recognize that and we honor that but-

MURRAY: I understand what your judgement is, and we have a judgement as well. I'm asking if you can tell us, and at what point you can tell us, what the cost of damage done to U.S. facilities is because of this war?

HURST: Yes ma'am, thanks for the question, and so for future posture in the Middle East we don't know what that's going to look like, we don't know how we're going to design these bases-

MURRAY: The damage to date, you do not have any cost estimate on it at all?

HURST: For the military construction, I do not have a cost estimate to provide you at this time.

MURRAY: Well, when will we get that?

HURST: Again, it depends on what the future posture is, how we decide to construct those bases-

MURRAY: To date, to date. You know what has happened to date. We can't get that number and that is a real concern to us-our job is to appropriate dollars, and we're just told "it's coming, it's coming" and we don't get it, so it's very hard to do our budgets.

And right now, Mr. Secretary, people are paying four, five, even six, seven dollars for gas-and American taxpayers are now on the hook as well for paying for this disastrous war.

You're spending families' hard-earned tax dollars on a war that many strongly oppose. And you're forcing people to pay more at the pump-and yet you're not even providing a real breakdown for the cost of this war so far. We have no real details, you have indicated that, and yet now you want Congress to send you $1.5 trillion more.

To me, that is unacceptable-and I hope our Republican colleagues will join us in not only rejecting that absurd request, but in insisting that the American people get the actual answers on how much money-their money-we are spending on this.

[CUTTING CHILD CARE AND HEALTH CARE FOR DEFENSE BUDGET]

Senator Murray continued by pressing Secretary Hegseth on Trump's FY27 budget request and his comments that the U.S. can only afford to pay for war, not child care or health care.

MURRAY: Let me turn and say, Secretary Hegseth, the president has called Medicaid, Medicare, and child care "little scams" and said, quote, "we're fighting wars, we cannot take care of day care."

I'm just trying to understand that, is it your position, since you're asking taxpayers for another half trillion dollars for the war, that American families should be forced to give up child care and health coverage so that you can have a $1.5 trillion for this budget?

HEGSETH: Senator, that's not my department and I certainly support this and I also support the president's efforts to find and remove fraud wherever possible and in general sense. And we do that in our department as well-

MURRAY: Well, I'm not talking about fraud, I actually asked whether an American family should lose their health care or their child care to pay for this budget. That is literally what the president suggested.

HEGSETH: The president has proposed a historic $1.5 trillion budget that will defend the nation and confront threats like Iran, which previous presidents allowed to happen, as Senator Graham pointed out. Previous administrations said they wanted to take care of this problem and they did not, and he's doing it.

MURRAY: The question in front of this committee, the question in front of the American people, is what are they being asked to give up for this $1.5 trillion? That's [what] I was talking about.

[CLOSING COMMENTS]

MURRAY: And lastly, Mr. Secretary, your budget request cuts through Trump's ramblings and really to me makes the truth clear that you and the president don't value families, as much as you value defense contractors. You want to increase the war budget-

HEGSETH: I meet every family at Dover, okay? Don't tell me we don't care about families, we sure do and we take care of them in every way we possibly can.

MURRAY: Let me finish, Mr. Secretary. I'm asking you about taxpayer dollars that everybody has to-when we've been to war before we've asked people to do victory gardens, we've asked them to pay more, you are not doing that. You are taking-asking for $1.5 trillion which means something else has to be given up- that's what this committee is looking at.

You want to increase the war budget for next year by half a trillion dollars. That is taxpayer money that could be used to feed families, or build new, affordable homes, or wipe out some diseases completely, or increase [child care] investments twenty times over. But you are asking us to blow it all on war-and that's not even counting the money you've spent bombing Iran-or that you may still request in a separate supplemental.

And to me, this budget wasn't even strategically crafted. 1.5 trillion dollars? It's like the president decided that was the number and you all filled in the blanks. So, what I am here today to say is you asked for a massive laundry list of unnecessary spending-a huge payday for defense contractors, and you still don't even ask to give DOD's civilian workers a pay raise, and to me, this is absurd!

I know you don't care what I have to say. So let me quote you someone you might actually listen to: President Eisenhower. He said: "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children."

That is what this budget proposal is asking. It's going to leave Americans cold and hungry to fund Trump's wars and make defense contractors a fortune. So that is why I hope this committee throws that in the trash and comes together with a budget that works for all American families.

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