Bush wants $100bn for Iraq

2007-02-03 16:36

Washington - United States President George W Bush would ask congress for $99.7bn for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars for the rest of fiscal year 2007 and more than $145bn for fiscal year 2008, said a Bush administration official on Friday.

The administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, also said Bush would estimate the costs for the Iraq war at $50bn for fiscal year 2009.

Bush will unveil those numbers when he presents his annual budget to congress on Monday.

The nearly $100bn in war spending for 2007 comes on top of $70bn that congress already approved, totalling $170bn and making this year the most expensive yet for the war.

Bush will ask for a hefty infusion of funds for Iraq at a time when his plans to dispatch 21 500 more troops to the conflict have been met with strong objections from many Democrats and some Republicans in congress.

Politicians are debating a resolution that will formally state their opposition.

It's a 'huge number'

The Bush administration also has been under pressure from congress to provide more details about its spending plans for the unpopular war.

House speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, called the expected request for the Pentagon next year a "huge number", but said she backed "doing whatever we have to do to protect the American people".

But Democrats have promised tough oversight into Bush's requests for Iraq war funding and military spending overall.

Pelosi said Democrats needed to see a breakdown of the proposals for Pentagon funding requests to decide if they were justified.

Since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the administration has funded the war primarily through emergency spending bills.

Funding from medical programme

Many politicians want the practice stopped and have demanded that Bush incorporate the war requests into the regular budget for transparency, with some referring to the emergency bills as a "shadow" budget.

The funding requests for Iraq and Afghanistan will be submitted to congress in the form of emergency budget "supplementals".

But the Bush administration will try to meet the concerns of its critics by providing some details about its spending plans in the budget documents.

On the domestic side of the budget, analysts expect a near freeze in spending as Bush seeks to make the case that his tax cuts can be afforded while achieving the goal of erasing the deficit by 2012.

The administration official declined to comment on overall domestic spending, but said Bush would project a balanced budget within five years and a surplus for 2012.

The New York Times reported on Friday that Bush would propose squeezing $70bn in savings from the Medicare and Medicaid health programmes over the next five years.

- Reuters