Gates Sees Need for at Least $83 Billion More in 2009 for Wars

[bigtree]

Feb. 20 (Bloomberg) -- The Pentagon needs at least $83 billion more for combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan through the end of this fiscal year, Pentagon officials told the White House.

This figure includes $7.3 billion to pay for adding troops in Afghanistan, Pentagon officials wrote to the Office of Management and Budget on Feb. 3. The U.S. will add about 17,000 to its force of 38,000, President Barack Obama announced this week.

The $83 billion is $13.3 billion more than Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in late December was needed. That estimate of $69.7 billion didn’t include the cost of sending more troops to Afghanistan, he said then.

Congress already has approved $65.9 billion in emergency wartime spending for fiscal 2009, which ends Sept. 30. The latest request would bring the amount to about $149 billion.

That is less than the $176 billion Congress approved for fiscal 2008 and the $171 billion for fiscal 2007, according to the Congress Research Service.

The second fiscal 2009 request will be submitted to Congress “soon” after the White House releases the broad outline of its fiscal 2010 budget on Feb. 26, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said today

read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=av.r.Cs8ohak&refer=canada

[marylanddem]

1. Why, why, WHY did Obama keep him on?

[originalpckelly]

2. I believe I remember this case, it was called Guns v. Butter

I think I remember how it turned out too.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

3. Blood money being squeezed out of the citizenry under false premises.

It's not like all that dough is needed elsewhere.

[bigtree]

4. and we're still waiting

. . . for the regular defense budget, hovering around $700b

[Orwellian_Ghost]

5. Anyone want to explain this?

More funding for the largest military on the planet. Is this what people voted for?