http://www.americanprogressaction.org/site/pp.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=280916 IRAQ – THE TRICKY COST OF WAR: The White House is expected to submit a request to Congress for $100 billion to pay for the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This will be the third -- and the most massive -- funding request for Iraq yet. The White House Office of Management and Budget estimates that so far the invasion of Iraq has cost about $130 billion; this new request would "push the cost of the Iraq war over $200 billion -- far above the initial White House estimates of $50 billion-$60 billion." This giant expense, however, is likely to come as a ''supplemental'' spending request, an accounting trick designed to keep it outside of President Bush's budget in February and thus not counted in the fuzzy math used in the White House pledge to halve the record-breaking $413 billion deficit. "The annual budget proposal we've been given by the White House falsely portrays the bottom line," said Rep. John Spratt (D-SC).