To bad your president doesn't know what a budget is!
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GOP lawmakers want Bush to pay rising costs of Iraq war now
By Esther Schrader and Janet Hook
Los Angeles Times
WASHINGTON — With bills piling up from the deepening war in Iraq, pressure is mounting on war planners in Washington to come up with additional money to pay for the conflict.
Republicans in Congress complained yesterday that the Bush administration's plans to delay a request for more money until early next year is unrealistic. And the nation's top military official, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Richard Myers, said the growing violence is pushing the cost of the war far over budget, threatening a $4 billion shortfall by late summer.
The war is costing about $4.7 billion a month, officials said.
Defense officials are studying their budget, which runs through Sept. 30, to determine whether some money can be moved from purchase programs or other Pentagon accounts, Myers told the House Armed Services Committee.
Myers said the recent decision to extend the tours in Iraq of about 20,000 troops will cost the Pentagon about $700 million more over the next three months.
Complaints among Republicans that the administration has failed to own up to the soaring costs of the war reflect growing political strains over the war and the looming elections. If the administration indeed is forced to ask for more money, Republicans would prefer to see that happen while the election is months away.
In surprisingly sharp terms, members of the House Armed Services Committee criticized the Bush administration's plan to wait to seek additional money until after the election.
Visibly angry, Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., said the Army had told his subcommittee that it had nearly $6 billion in unappropriated budget requests.
"I think the budget request that is provided to us is short-sighted and, in the case of the Army, I think it is outrageous," Weldon said. "How can we justify that?"
Armed Services Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., said after the hearing that he believed the administration should seek additional money for Iraq before the current fiscal year ends in September. He said he was inclined to include an authorization for $20 billion in his panel's Pentagon authorization bill whether the administration requested it or not.
Hunter said it was clear that the $87 billion appropriated last year was being spent faster than expected. Without more money, the Pentagon will risk being forced to gut other programs to cover Iraq costs. "It is clear that money is going to be very tight in the last month or two of the fiscal year. We don't want to have a period of shortage," Hunter said. "The prudent thing to do is to move early with that money rather than later."
Privately, legislators said the Pentagon had told Congress it needed more money soon. And, one said, "The Pentagon will get it."
House Appropriations Committee Chairman C.W. Young, R-Fla., whose committee would have to handle a request for more money, signaled that no decision had been made on when to appropriate it.
"At all of our hearings on the subject, the administration told us there is adequate money through the end of the fiscal year," Young said. But in light of changing circumstances, Young said, "a certain amount of flexibility is always in order. You're still dealing with a lot of unknowns."
Young said he would not consider additional money until House-Senate negotiators reached some agreement on the fiscal 2005 budget.
Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., said he sensed election-year politics was a factor in the administration's delay. "The administration would be well-served here to come forward now, be honest about this, because the continuity and the confidence in this policy is going to be required to sustain it," Hagel said. "And that means be honest with the Congress, be honest with the American people."
Hagel said it would cost an additional $50 billion to $75 billion "to sustain us in Iraq for this year."
Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, said, "They haven't asked for one single penny for next year for Afghanistan and Iraq. Give me a break. Give me a break!"
Biden and Hagel made their comments on NBC's "Today."
Some Republicans said Congress would be unlikely to provide additional money unless the administration requested it.
As a political matter, the administration set the last supplemental spending bill at a higher level than some wanted — the $87 billion passed last year — with the idea it would last until after the election.
"I'd be surprised" if the leadership would push for a vote on more money before the election, said Rep. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, a member of the GOP leadership.
But the administration's decision was taken before the recent surge of attacks by Iraqi insurgents forced military commanders to increase counterattacks.
President Bush, acknowledging the growing controversy over the deterioration in Iraq in recent weeks, said yesterday he realized the military situation had been "really rough."
"Roughest on the families of those who lost their lives and those who wonder about the security and safety of their loved ones," Bush said.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the administration was keeping the door open to the possibility of a supplemental request before the election.
"The decisions should be based on what the commanders in the field feel is necessary," he said. "It really depends on circumstances on the ground."
Times staff writer Mary Curtius in Washington contributed to this report. Biden's comment was from an Associated Press report.
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