Iraq hurting long-term economic future.

Reuters reports the economic experts are worried about the impact of the Iraq war’s increasing costs. “The short-term economic consequences of the war have been manageable and modest. But the long-term consequences will be substantial,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Economy.com. “Much of the problem, economists say, is that every month of combat adds more than $10 billion to a U.S. debt that now tops $9 trillion.”

Robert Reischauer, head of the Urban Institute and a former director of the Congressional Budget Office, said the benefits of war spending for the U.S. economy had been “muted” because so much of the money is spent on goods and services abroad. That, he said, was “stimulating economies elsewhere, not the least being the economies of Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.”