Washington D.C. - In advance of the five year anniversary of the war in Iraq, U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer, Chairman, and Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, Vice Chair of the Joint Economic Committee (JEC) held a hearing to examine the true cost of the war. The hearing entitled, “War at Any Cost? The Total Economic Costs of the War Beyond the Federal Budget” was held Thursday, February 28, 2008 at 9:30 am in Room 106 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building. Nobel Prize winner and former World Bank Chief Economist, Joseph Stiglitz, testified along with former National Security Council (NSC) adviser Robert Hormats, and Rand Beers, who also served Democratic and Republican presidents on the NSC. Professor Stiglitz has been the leading economist to quantify the costs of the war in Iraq; Mr. Hormats has questioned deficit spending to pay for the war; Mr. Beers is a leading expert on the costs of Iraq war to our national security, military readiness, and reputation abroad.