Bush Wants $86B More for Iraq, Afgan Costs

[bluedog]

***************** I say NO MORE damn MONEY*******************

Bush Wants $86B More for Iraq, Afgan Costs



White House - AP

WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites) was poised to officially ask Congress Monday for an estimated $82 billion in additional funds to cover the costs of continuing military operations in Iraq (news - web sites) and Afghanistan (news - web sites).



The White House was to send the supplemental budget request to Capitol Hill late Monday, White House press secretary Scott McClellan told reporters.

Last Monday, Bush submitted an overall $2.5 trillion budget for Fiscal 2006. That document called for restraining spending across a wide swath of government programs from popular farm subsidies to poor people's health programs. Spending on the military, the biggest part of discretionary spending, would rise by 4.8 percent in 2006 to $419.3 billion.

But this figure does not include the estimated $82 billion that the administration wants to pay for the ongoing military expenses in Iraq and the Middle East.
more...........................................

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=544&ncid=703&e=4&u=/ap/20050214/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_iraq_afghanistan

[renaissanceguy]

1. Of course we should give our troops

whatever they need. But we need accountability along with it. Is all this money going directly to the troops' needs? How about some sort of exit strategy to go along with it?

http://www.cafepress.com/liberalissues.16781662

[KansDem]

10. "Accountability???"

"Accountability" is for Democrats, not the Party of God...

[ktowntennesseedem]

46. The only money I want to see spent is

for the transport vehicles to bring out troops home. As for the rest of the money we have promised--remember all the money that at one time was marked for "reconstruction"--I say we give it to them as compensation for the mess we made. Give 'em food, material, money, whatever then need to get back on their feet, but get the military out of there. (what happened to "mission accomplished?"). If they need people to help, invite private contractors to go and help "rebuild" all they want to. If they want to risk life and limb for a quick fortune, let 'em.

quag·mire ('kwag-"mIr, 'kwäg-"mIr): noun. 1. soft miry land that shakes or yields under the foot, 2. a difficult, precarious, or entrapping position : PREDICAMENT

[renaissanceguy]

2. Deleted

[cthrumatrix]

3. first find the other $9 Billion you lost .....

[cal04]

14. They should take a look in a couple of

bank accounts
I bet we could find some others with cash deposits and not contractors.

The following is the statement of Franklin K. Willis, a senior official in L. Paul Bremer’s Coalition Provisional Authority government in Iraq and senior official at the State and Transportation departments in the 1980s under President Ronald Reagan. Willis will testify during Democrats’ Senate Policy Committee hearings today that Iraqi contractors were paid with bags of cash.
http://rawstory.com/news/2005/index.php?p=72

[Just Me]

28. $9 BILLION apparently misappropriated by crony corporations!!!

There appears to be evidence of fraud, blackmail, death threats, obstruction of justice, misappropriation, conspiracy to cover-up, and on and on and on!!!

The level of criminal corruptin is simply stunning!!!

And the damned Bush administration and Republicans ARE LETTING THESE CRONIES RIP OFF THE AMERICAN TAXPAYER!!!

I am so disgusted by so much EVIL-DOINGS!!! :puke:

[kris10ep]

50. Bush spent your Social Security

on his war.

[SammyWinstonJack]

51. And on tax cuts for the Greed Piggies. n/t

[emad]

4. Bush Sending $81 Billion Package to Congress

Reuters
Mon Feb 14, 2005 09:48 AM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush planned to send to the U.S. Congress on Monday an $81 billion package to fund U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, an administration official said.
The package includes $600 million to help Asian nations hit by the Dec. 26 tsunami.

The administration official said Bush will send the $81 billion request to Capitol Hill later in the day.

The request will push funding for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan to a record $105 billion for fiscal year 2005 alone.
http://olympics.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=7621532

[underpants]

5. Play money not on the budget doesn't count

and we would like to thank the bank of China for financing the war that would pay for itself.

[hector459]

6. They should send it right back!

eom

[truthisfreedom]

7. spend, spend, spend. and he promised us the OIL would pay for

Operation Iraqi Liberation.

plegh. <wipes mouth>

[snippy]

8. All of the oil money must have gone to pay for the flowers. n/t

[AllegroRondo]

16. Plus 600 million for Tsunami relief

so if you vote "no" on this, you must hate helping tsunami victims.

[flordehinojos]

9. BUSH WANTS. BUSH WANTS. BUSH WANTS!!!! bush: a bottomless glass wanting

his never ending booze...whether the booze be money, oil, munitions, young american lives to kill young iraqi lives, bush wants. bush wants. bush wants. IT IS TIME FOR SOMEONE, ANYONE, TO SAY, NO. YOU CAN'T HAVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[KansDem]

11. How much does this make now?

And how much more is it than was initially projected?

[CountAllVotes]

12. I wrote to my senators regarding this obscene proposal

and I sent the very same letter without any changes to several Republican senators as well. I suggest that others that might find the time for this urgent issue to do the same!

Below is a link to all of the senators' names, addresses, and phone numbers:

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Write or call your senators now (and other senators also) and let them know what you think about more funding for a war without end! Hurry! Time is of the essence!!!

:kick:

[auburngrad82]

13. They could have an easy 9 billion if they could figure out where it went..

They've "lost" $9 billion in Iraq. Rumsfeld says the Dept of Defense can't account for about $1.5 trillion. I think if they can't account for it then we shouldn't be giving them money in a suplementary spending bill because there's no congressional oversight on the suplementary spending bills. And if they can't oversee their own spending then someone has to...

[Hamsta1]

26. What gets me is

the fact that * always leaves the costs of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan out of the budget, but we've been there for how long now? Does he still not know how much this is costing us? Has he divorced himself from reality??

[hadrons]

15. take it from the "Red State" welfare fund ....

Georgie ... here's the secret; THEY'LL STILL VOTE FOR YOUR GOP BUDDIES NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU PUNISH THEM!!!

[Mr_Spock]

17. Fuck him - no more money.

You lost the war 'cause it cost too much. Go to hell Satan.

[PurityOfEssence]

18. Suppla-Mental Illness

Put it in the budget, you fraud. You know damn well you're going to spend every penny of that and more, so what's with the flimsy argument that "you just can't tell" that Rummy keeps bleating? Admit the well-over-a-half-trillion deficit for this year and be a grown-up about it.

[0007]

19. junior wants more money and we can't even see the dead bodies

coming home.

Fuck you junior! Bring the troops home alive and end this goddamn bullshit.

[Purrfessor]

20. Military budget increase is 27%, not 4.8% with this additional money

n/t

[porkrind]

21. Tax and Spend Republicans

This is obscene! He's a fiscal junkie, and he is spending us to ruin. Wake the f**k up, conservative idiots of America! He's driving us over a cliff.

[Thor_MN]

53. No, Spend and Spend.

The repugs don't even have enough personal responsibilty to accept raising taxes to cover their out of control spending. They are like a bunch of 14 year olds with daddy's credit card. I, for one, have about had it with their teen angst...

[ProfessorGAC]

54. Borrow & Spend

Or Credit Card Republicans
The Professor

[Jeff in Cincinnati]

22. They've spent $300 billion in response to 9/11

I did some searching and found that the consensus is that the cost of the WTC attacks (we're talking insurance liability here) was about $40 billion. So we've spent eight times the amount of the actual damage done to us, and we're no closer to apprehending Osama bin Laden than we were on September 12, 2001. Who voted for this pinhead?!

[Mr_Spock]

31. Actually, most of that money was wasted building a theocrisy is Iraq

What a fuggin' loser this shrub character is...

[LiberalCompassionate]

40. Osama who???

You must mean Saddam bin laden.

Until the sheeple wake up, if ever, we will be at war somewhere in order to feed the great military industrial beast, even if we have to starve the social safety net programs social security/medicare/medicaid beast.

Which is exactly the intent of the neocon bastards. :puke:

[Jeff in Cincinnati]

44. Osama bin Forgotten

[Massachusetts]

23. Hahahahahahahahahah!

[lala_rawraw]

24. HR 418 will be attached to this....

The dems cannot vote on this bill!! In fact, they should walk out.

[Just Me]

30. You mean the bill that allows the HS Sec. suspend ALL LAWS!!!

That's the "Real ID Act",...right?

They are attaching that thing to the budget?

EWWWW,...they ARE EVIL,....those Republicans ARE EVIL!!!

They LIE to the American people, and CHEAT the American people, and STEAL over TWO TRILLION via taxpayer funded DoD and at least NINE BILLION of taxpayer funded war in Iraq!!!

They are preying off our people!!! DAMN THOSE REPUBLICAN PREDATORS!!! DAMN THEM!!!

:mad:

[lala_rawraw]

37. YES

That is why I have screaming bloody hell none stop over this. When I wrote the story the Gannon thing ate it up. People need to WALE Up!!!

[bluedog]

25. any ideas how

our Democratic Senators are going to respond to this?

Remember what the Republicans and the "Media" did to Kerry about the other $87 Billion..........lets get some ideas here to write to these people.

[GregW]

27. I bet you wondered just how big $87 billion is ...

This kinds puts it in perspective ...

http://www.crunchweb.net/87billion/

[Cadence]

29. Just thinking about the difference

all of that money would make in the lives of the children in America makes me sick. Instead they would rather throw money at killing. Sounds Pro-Life to me!

[Catchawave]

32. Bush Wants $82B More for Iraq, Afghan Costs

By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites) on Monday urged Congress to approve quickly his request for $82 billion to cover the costs of military operations in Iraq (news - web sites) and Afghanistan (news - web sites) and a myriad of other internationally related expenses, such as training Iraqi security forces, aiding tsunami victims and helping military forces in other nations.


"The majority of this request will ensure that our troops continue to get what they need to protect themselves and complete their mission,'" Bush said in a statement released before the White House officially sent the supplemental budget request to Capitol Hill.


"It also provides for the continued pursuit of al-Qaida and other terrorist elements in Afghanistan and elsewhere," the president said. "I urge the Congress to move quickly so our troops and diplomats have the tools they need to succeed."


Included in the request is $74.9 billion for the Defense Department. About $5 billion is for reorganizing Army divisions and brigades and $5.7 billion for training and equipping Iraqi military and police, according to a federal official familiar with the request.


The remaining money in the supplemental request includes:

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=544&u=/ap/20050214/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_iraq_afghanistan&printer=1

[Damien]

33. wow

somehow this doesn't appear in his budget...gee -- I wonder why.

[deadparrot]

34. Yep, they're not like us

dirty "tax and spend lib'ruls."

They just spend...so Joe Millionaire gets his tax cut now, but I'll be working off his goddamn debt when I'm 60.

My future's so bright, I gotta wear shades.

[ozymandius]

35. On the Senate floor

some should ask how much of this money he intends to "lose".

[FloridaPat]

36. What exactly does the other $450 billion the DOD gets every year

pay for? And where is Missile Defense in all this? DOD or another off budget item?

These people can sure spend money. How come this accounting won't work for me and my checking account???

[LiberalCompassionate]

42. the other 450 billion

goes to exploring other death delivering and/or profit options, either in the form of the never-will-work-but-$$$for-McDonnald-Douglas-GE missle defense or for special ops weapon buying from other countries to give to "insurgents and/or freedom fighters" .
:nuke:

[Anakin Skywalker]

38. Hands Off Our Money, @$$hole!

[The_Casual_Observer]

39. Strange that the gop doesn't question any of this.

It seems that identifying total blunders has become a partisan activity.

[teryang]

41. 911 the tap into the American money river

...which flows directly into the bush dynasty base, the defense contractors.

He couldn't do shit in the oil business but he hit a gusher here.

[GOPBasher]

43. Dems should say, "The money's not there right now; tax the rich."

Tax the rich for it. Don't add more to the exponentially exploding national debt. Tax the rich. Period.

[Skittles]

I bet it pisses off the dictator no END that he has to ASK FOR IT

nt

[Skittles]

45. I bet it pisses off the dictator no END that he has to ASK FOR IT

nt

[are_we_united_yet]

47. I say we 86 the Bush Administration

[no_to_war_economy]

48. (pic)

[chlamor]

49. "Of course the people don't want war...."

The looting of the US Treasury and dismantling of social programs to keep us picking the bones. These folks in the White House are the most criminally insane and vicious bastards this country has ever had to endure.

"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger." -- Herman Goering, one of Hitler's top Nazis, at the Nuremberg trials.

[TahitiNut]

52. In 2002, US military spending was 47% of the world's spending ...

This is when the US miliary budget was a mere $400 billion. It has been increased by more than 25% since then - such a short time ago.

[ItsThePeopleStupid]

56. thank you for your wonderful graphs

and I have read that (since then) U.S. military spending is more than *all other nations combined*. Amazing.

However, this is becoming another third rail. I never hear elected Dems saying a thing about it.

The Pentagon has not been able to pass an audit for years (see Chuck Spinney). I wish our representatives in congress would at least start demanding that the Pentagon account for all this money.

[realFedUp]

55. We just borrow more from China...

saw this opinion piece today:

Shooting Up With George
http://www.newsforreal.com/
Stephen Pizzo

Thanks to a new federal law credit rating agencies must provide consumers with a free credit report once a year. Might I suggest that President Bush avail himself of this freebie right now and see how the credit markets feel about America’s credit worthiness?

For those of you, who like Bush, slept through Econ 101, here’s how the lending business operates: the higher the risk lenders perceive in a borrower’s financial future, the higher the rate of interest they charge. It’s Rule One of economics – the higher the risk, the higher the rate of return, and visa versa. It’s what makes capitalism, capitalism.

If Bush pulled a free credit report for his US of A this morning here’s what he would discover:


WASHINGTON (AP) -- Interest rates on short-term Treasury bills rose in Monday's auction to the highest levels in more than three years. The Treasury Department auctioned $20 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 2.540 percent, up from 2.480 percent last week. Another $17 billion in six-month bills was auctioned at a discount rate of 2.760 percent, up from 2.710 percent…. the highest since they averaged 2.560 percent on Sept. 17, 2001. The six-month rate was the highest since 3.120 percent on Sept. 10, 2001.


Clearly those with the money to lend do not agree with Dick Cheney’s view that, “deficits don’t matter.” They may not matter to him or Bush since they will be long out of office when the loans they are taking out now to cover tax cuts, deficits and war come due. But the lenders – who these days is largely China – care a lot.

What they see when John Snow comes around, like he did this week, shaking his tin cup, is a nation living far beyond its means, and not about to change. So, they hike the interest they demand on the money we borrow to mitigate the risk of default.

Of course default is unlikely since the US can always print more money, spark inflation and devalue the dollar allowing us to screw our lenders by repaying old obligations with dirt-cheap dollars. But even former commies like the Chinese understand that and, by charging higher rates they mitigate against that as well.

Then there is the final reason rates go up for debt-junkie nations. It’s the same reason a heroin addict’s supplier starts the user out with free and then cheap fixes until he is good and hooked. After that the price charged is determined by degree of need – “So, just how much do you need a fix today, son?”

China and other nations that buy US bonds, (which you can accurately see as our communal credit card debt.) are only too aware of the Bush administration’s drunken-sailor-on-leave spending habits. They watched as he turned a projected $5 trillion budget surplus when they took office into a $4 trillion budget deficit. Most of that money went to buying votes from the rich with tax cuts and the elderly with drug benefits and two foreign wars. Eeeeeeeeeha!

So, it has come this. “Well, George, how much do you need a fix today,” asks our inscrutable Chinese lenders as they gauge the amount of sweat on his brow, the trembling hands, rambling references to God and democracy, incomprehensible mumbles about gays and marriage, and occasional outbursts about how he needs the money to help old people invest their retirement savings wisely.

And the interest rate on our national credit debt goes up.

Today’s news of higher rates on the bonds that fund the Bush deficits is just the beginning folks. This week Bush goes to Congress for another $82 billion to fund the war in Iraq. That’s $107 billion so far this year and it’s only Feb. Estimates are that little extravagance will cost us at least $400 billion.

Let’s be clear. He is not asking Congress for the $82 billion, because there is no $82 billion in the Treasury to give him. He is asking that Congress allow him to borrow another $82 billion for the war.
And, if Congress agrees, as it will, he will be sending poor old Treasury Secretary Snow back to China with his tin cup to borrow the money.

Am I crazy or is that crazy?