WASHINGTON ( CNN ) -- Iraq is raking in more money from oil exports than it is spending , amassing a projected four-year budget surplus of up to $ 80 billion , U.S. auditors reported Tuesday . Oil accounted for 94 percent of the Iraq 's revenue from 2005 to 2007 , a U.S. report says . Leading members of Congress , noting that Washington is paying for reconstruction in Iraq , expressed outrage at the assessment . One called the findings `` inexcusable . '' `` We should not be paying for Iraqi projects while Iraqi oil revenues continue to pile up in the bank , including outrageous profits from $ 4-a-gallon gas prices in the U.S. , '' said Sen. Carl Levin , the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee . `` We should require that U.S. taxpayers be reimbursed for the cost of large projects . '' Baghdad had a $ 29 billion budget surplus between 2005 to 2007 . With the price of crude roughly doubling in the past year , Iraq 's surplus for 2008 is expected to run between $ 38 billion and $ 50 billion , according to a report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office . The United States has put about $ 48 billion toward reconstruction since the 2003 invasion of Iraq , auditors reported . About $ 23 billion of that was spent on the oil and electricity industries , water systems and security . Iraq spent $ 3.9 billion on those sectors from 2005 through April 2008 , according to the GAO , the investigative arm of Congress . The ongoing fighting there , a shortage of trained staff and weak controls have made it difficult for the Iraqi government to spend its surplus on needed projects , the agency 's report concluded . Levin , a Michigan Democrat , has been an outspoken critic of the slow progress of reconstruction and an advocate of a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq . His criticism Tuesday was echoed by Sen. John Warner , a Virginia Republican who is the former chairman and now a leading member of Levin 's committee . `` Despite Iraq earning billions of dollars in oil revenue in the past five years , U.S. taxpayer money has been the overwhelming source of Iraq reconstruction funds , '' Warner said in a joint statement with Levin . `` It is time for the sovereign government of Iraq , using its revenues , expenditures and surpluses , to fully assume the responsibility to provide essential services and improve the quality of life for the Iraqi people . '' In its written response to the audit report , the Treasury Department said U.S. officials are working with Iraqis to address the issue , `` and we believe progress is being made . '' `` The report shows Iraq 's budget surplus is likely to grow significantly over the course of 2008 , but it is equally important to realize that spending in Iraq is also increasing , '' Deputy Assistant Treasury Secretary Andy Baukol wrote to the GAO . Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki 's government submitted a $ 22 billion supplemental budget to the Iraqi parliament in July , including $ 8 billion in proposed capital expenditures , Baukol wrote . The issue raised the hackles of several members of Congress earlier this year -- particularly because Bush administration officials said on the eve of the war that Iraqi oil money would pay for reconstruction . In 2003 , then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz told the House Appropriations Committee : `` We 're dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction , and relatively soon . '' Rep. Henry Waxman , D-California , said Tuesday 's report `` is going to make a lot of American families very angry . '' `` The record gas prices they are paying have turned into an economic windfall for Iraq , but the Iraqi government is n't spending the money on rebuilding , '' said Waxman , the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee . Levin spokeswoman Tara Andringa said the senator hopes to tighten rules governing U.S. expenditures on Iraqi reconstruction efforts in the next Pentagon authorization bill . The Iraqi surplus has piled up even though the country 's oil production has only recently matched prewar levels , according to the Brookings Institution 's latest Iraq Index . The country spent about 80 percent of its $ 29 billion operating budget in 2007 , including public services and salaries , but only 28 percent of its $ 12 billion investment budget , the GAO found . The export of crude oil accounted for 94 percent of Iraq 's revenues from 2005 to 2007 , the GAO reported .
U.S. lawmakers upset over surplus , noting Washington is footing reconstruction . The taxpayers will be disappointed , senator says . Report ##edly Washington 's budget surplus from 2006 to 2008 could hit $ 100 billion .