WASHINGTON -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- With U.S. gasoline prices setting records , opponents of the war in Iraq have raised a new complaint this week : The budget windfall that skyrocketing oil prices has given Baghdad . Iraqi employees attend the opening ceremony of a new oil refinery plant in Najaf , Iraq , on March 15 . Crude oil futures topped $ 112 a barrel in Wednesday 's intraday trading in New York -- up from about $ 35 a barrel before the 2003 invasion of Iraq . Though Iraq 's oil exports have yet to top prewar levels , the price rise has meant a $ 6.4 billion surplus for the Iraqi government , according to the Pentagon 's last quarterly report on the war . With the five-year-old war 's cost to U.S. taxpayers estimated at more than $ 600 billion , the Iraqi windfall provoked sharp questions from Congress during two days of testimony by the top U.S. officials in Iraq , Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker . `` This nation 's facing record deficits , and the Iraqis have translated their oil revenues into budget surpluses rather than effective services , '' Rep. Ike Skelton of Missouri , the Democratic chairman of the House Armed Services Committee , said Wednesday . `` Under these circumstances and with a strategic risk to our nation and our military readiness , we and the American people must ask : Why should we stay in Iraq in large numbers ? '' Rep. Dana Rohrabacher , R-California , proposed the Iraqi government pay the cost of stationing U.S. troops in its country under any future agreement between Washington and Baghdad -- and said he would introduce legislation to require that . `` The United States government and the people of the United States have paid an awful price , '' Rohrabacher said . `` It 's time for the Iraqis to pay that price for their own protection . '' Crocker said Iraq has allocated $ 13 billion for reconstruction projects in 2008 and plans to add another $ 5 billion this summer . The U.S. focus will shift to improving Iraq 's economy at the local level and expanding its export capacity , he said . `` The era of U.S.-funded major infrastructure projects is over . We are seeking to ensure that our assistance , in partnership with the Iraqis , leverages Iraq 's own resources , '' he said . Five years after Baghdad fell to a U.S.-led army , many Iraqis still lack basic services such as water , sewer connections and electricity . Nevertheless , Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said the government is `` doing its best '' to spend money to improve the country . `` I think the government has a responsibility , definitely , to care for its people , to provide services and to use the oil money for reconstruction and development , '' Zebari said . The United States has committed about $ 45 billion to Iraq 's reconstruction since the March 2003 invasion , according to a report last month from the Government Accountability Office . The agency , the investigative arm of Congress , concluded that Iraq 's oil revenues could top $ 100 billion in 2007 and 2008 . When President Bush announced he was dispatching almost 30,000 additional U.S. troops to Iraq in January 2007 , he told Americans that Iraqis would spend $ 10 billion on reconstruction projects and pass a law allocating the country 's oil wealth as steps toward a political settlement of the war . The GAO , however , found Iraq had spent only 7 percent of that budget by November 2007 , and the proposed oil law has stalled in the country 's fractious parliament . Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh blamed the ongoing insurgency and the `` socialist command economy '' left behind by ousted dictator Saddam Hussein for the slow pace of reconstruction . `` At the time we were trying to reform it , open up the system , when we are faced with the terrible challenge of al Qaeda and this tornado of terrorism afflicting the society day in , day out , '' Saleh said . `` People should not be too judgmental . '' But Sen. Claire McCaskill , D-Missouri , said Tuesday the issue is `` a burr in the saddle of the American people '' -- particularly since Bush administration officials told Congress before the invasion that Iraq could finance its own reconstruction with oil revenues . Rep. Walter Jones of North Carolina -- a Republican opponent of the war -- pointed out the United States `` is borrowing money from foreign governments to pay our bills '' while oil and gas prices have more than doubled . `` The issue is that we in this Congress are going to be cutting programs to help our elderly with health care , '' he said Wednesday . `` The American people want to know that the Iraqi government understands that we do not have treasure and blood to go on and on and on . '' E-mail to a friend CNN 's Jill Dougherty in Baghdad contributed to this report .