Military Seeks To Double Spending On Wars
Good thing that they are holding this request until after the midterm election.
Given such a increase in costs, voters might be tempted to question the necessity of the whole Iraq adventure.
The military services and defense agencies have requested as much as $160 billion in supplemental spending for the remainder of fiscal 2007 -- a staggering figure that would bring wartime costs this year to $230 billion, defense sources said Friday.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has not yet approved the requests and does not plan to make a final decision until Nov. 15, one week after the midterm congressional elections. But should Rumsfeld sign off on the proposals, a move that defense analysts consider highly doubtful, it would double wartime expenditures from last year's totals.
The services' requests, first reported by InsideDefense.com, also would make total fiscal 2007 supplemental spending equal to more than half of the regular fiscal 2007 defense budget. The Army and Air Force requested $80 billion and $50 billion, respectively, for the last half of fiscal 2007, sources told CongressDaily. The Navy and Marine Corps appear to have submitted smaller requests.
Congress already has appropriated a $70 billion bridge fund to cover the war costs for the first several months of this fiscal year, $20 billion more than the Bush administration proposed last February in its fiscal 2007 budget request.
Several senior lawmakers, including Senate Budget Chairman Judd Gregg, R-N.H., Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, and Senate Armed Services Airland Subcommittee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., have become increasingly frustrated by the Defense Department's reliance on massive emergency spending bills, which bypass the authorization committees.
Military officials, too, have expressed concern that emergency spending hinders their ability to do long-term budget planning and, ultimately, could drive up costs of weapons systems.
"For all its flaws, [the Pentagon] used to have the most disciplined and orderly long-term budget planning process" in the federal government, said Gordon Adams, Office of Management and Budget associate director of national security during the Clinton administration. "This kind of practice over the last five years has killed it."
Given such a increase in costs, voters might be tempted to question the necessity of the whole Iraq adventure.
The military services and defense agencies have requested as much as $160 billion in supplemental spending for the remainder of fiscal 2007 -- a staggering figure that would bring wartime costs this year to $230 billion, defense sources said Friday.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has not yet approved the requests and does not plan to make a final decision until Nov. 15, one week after the midterm congressional elections. But should Rumsfeld sign off on the proposals, a move that defense analysts consider highly doubtful, it would double wartime expenditures from last year's totals.
The services' requests, first reported by InsideDefense.com, also would make total fiscal 2007 supplemental spending equal to more than half of the regular fiscal 2007 defense budget. The Army and Air Force requested $80 billion and $50 billion, respectively, for the last half of fiscal 2007, sources told CongressDaily. The Navy and Marine Corps appear to have submitted smaller requests.
Congress already has appropriated a $70 billion bridge fund to cover the war costs for the first several months of this fiscal year, $20 billion more than the Bush administration proposed last February in its fiscal 2007 budget request.
Several senior lawmakers, including Senate Budget Chairman Judd Gregg, R-N.H., Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, and Senate Armed Services Airland Subcommittee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., have become increasingly frustrated by the Defense Department's reliance on massive emergency spending bills, which bypass the authorization committees.
Military officials, too, have expressed concern that emergency spending hinders their ability to do long-term budget planning and, ultimately, could drive up costs of weapons systems.
"For all its flaws, [the Pentagon] used to have the most disciplined and orderly long-term budget planning process" in the federal government, said Gordon Adams, Office of Management and Budget associate director of national security during the Clinton administration. "This kind of practice over the last five years has killed it."
posted by Effwit at 9:27 AM
2 Comments:
Wow $230 Billion!! That's something like $.65 Billion/day funnelled from the American taxpayer to the DEATH & DESTRUCTION of the world account.... think of the roads, hospitals, schools, medicare, etc. $.65,000,000,000 *each day* could buy for Americans --- and yet the commenter on the previous post gave Rumsfeld her blessings... .... Hope that she gets benefits with that interpretive dance gig...
There is something so fundementally wrong with the decisions the Bush admin has made that it is going to take years for the world to recover...And I don't think America will ever be the same...
Dena
Dena:
The Bush administration and their corporate friends know that the gravy train will soon come to an end. Thus, they are trying to soak the taxpayers for every dollar they can possibly get.
The American people will be paying -- in treasure and in the loss of good reputation -- for many years to come.
If not forever.
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