WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration will ask for another $100 billion for military and diplomatic operations in Iraq and Afghanistan this year and seek $145 billion for 2008, a senior administration official said Friday.
The requests Monday, to accompany President Bush's budget for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, would bring the total appropriations for 2007 to about $170 billion, with a slight decline the following year.
The additional request for the current year includes $93.4 billion for the Pentagon _ on top of $70 billion approved by Congress in September _ and is about $6 billion less than the Pentagon's request to the White House budget office.
Bowing to pressure from Congress, the administration will also break down the $145 billion request for next year into detailed form.
Let's take this for what it is. The Bush administration wants to front-load the budget with the Iraq war spending for the remainder of President Bush's term. The Bush White House knows that some type of a congressional resolution opposing the troop surge will pass--for now it will probably be the Warner resolution. The nightmare scenario will be if Congress passes a resolution cutting off the funding for the Iraq war before Bush's presidential term is up. Better to get the 2008 war funding into the pipe now, so the administration can spend it later.
No comments:
Post a Comment