Senate Backs $109B For War, Hurricane Aid

Gold9472

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Senate Backs $109B for War, Hurricane Aid

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060504/ap_on_go_co/congress_spending

(Gold9472: Is it me, or does anyone else think we're being lied to about the cost of the Iraq War? I remember a plethora of bills passed that were like $89B a piece, and yet we're being told that the total cost has so far been $200+B.)

By ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press Writer
33 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The Senate Thursday passed a $109 billion bill to pay for the war in Iraq and hurricane aid for the Gulf Coast, but a veto threat imperils many provisions added by lawmakers.

The bill has grown to about $14 billion more than President Bush says he is willing to accept, and difficult House-Senate talks loom over how to cut it back to his request.

The measure passed by a 78-20 vote. It contains $65.7 billion for war operations and $28.8 billion for hurricane relief, including grants to states to build and repair housing and $3.9 billion for levees and flood control projects in Louisiana.

Bush's veto threat puts at risk items not requested by the president, such as $4 billion in farm disaster aid, $1 billion in state grants and $1.1 billion in aid to the Gulf Coast seafood industry.

"Unfortunately, there are some here in Washington trying to load that bill up with unnecessary spending," Bush said Wednesday. "This bill is for emergency spending, and it should be limited to emergency measures."

House leaders promise to take a hard line in upcoming talks with the Senate.

"The House will not take up an emergency supplemental spending bill for Katrina and the war in Iraq that spends one dollar more than what the president asks for. Period," said House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio.

Such vows imperil numerous Senate add-ons, including $648 million for port security, $1.9 billion to secure U.S. borders and waters and efforts to boost the budget for New Orleans flood control projects.

David Vitter, R-La., obtained another $200 million in New Orleans-area flood control projects Thursday, bringing the total for such efforts to $3.9 billion. The addition was financed by cuts to the Federal Emergency Management Agency's disaster fund.

The upcoming House-Senate negotiations will test the determination and political strength — and ingenuity — of Gulf Coast Republicans, including the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Sen. Thad Cochran (news, bio, voting record) of Mississippi. They will fight for home-state projects and priorities despite opposition from House and Senate GOP leaders and the White House.

The White House will try to fight off possible attempts by lawmakers to further cut into a $67.6 billion request for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan in their search for money for hurricane relief and border protection.

During almost two weeks before the full Senate, the bill grew by more than $2 billion despite a toughly worded veto threat made on the first day of debate. Bush said he would veto any bill exceeding his $92.2 billion request for the war and hurricane relief plus an additional $2.3 billion to prepare for a possible bird flu pandemic.

Bush's veto threat emboldened conservatives such as Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Tom Coburn, R-Okla. They undertook — and mostly lost — battles against home-state projects inserted by senior senators such as Cochran, Richard Shelby, R-Ala., and Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii.

But Cochran may face an uphill battle in trying to preserve controversial earmarks such as $700 million to relocate a freight line along the Mississippi coast further inland despite its being already rebuilt with insurance proceeds.

With the exception of a single vote last week, to kill $15 million for seafood promotion obtained by Shelby, conservatives failed to pare back the spending bill.

During action last week in the full Senate, Sen. Judd Gregg (news, bio, voting record), R-N.H., succeeded in diverting $1.9 billion in Pentagon funds to border security needs such as new aircraft and patrol boats.

On Tuesday, lawmakers added about $1.7 billion for levees and other flood control projects in the New Orleans areas.

But unlike Bush's request last week, this money for flood control would not be offset by cutting the government's chief disaster relief fund.
 
From Cost Of War.com

Below is a running total of the U.S. taxpayer cost of the Iraq War. The number is based on Congressional appropriations.
The War in Iraq Costs $278,222,329,426

See the cost in your community

[size=+1]How Much is the War in Iraq Costing?[/size]

[font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]By WINSLOW T. WHEELER - Counterpunch[/font]
[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][size=+2][size=-1]The Congressional Research Service has just released a new report on the past and possible future costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Pending Congress’ action on the new emergency supplemental, which should complete fiscal year 2006 expenses, the costs will be up to $439 billion by the end of this year. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg; details follow. The full report is available at www.cdi.org/smrp.[/size][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][size=+2][size=-1]If Congress approves the $71 billion emergency supplemental to pay for the ongoing cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the new total for the war expenses will be $439 billion, according to a new report released on April 24 by the Congressional Research Service (CRS). For the war in Iraq, $320 billion will have been spent; $89 billion for Afghanistan, and $26 billion will have gone toward enhanced security, including combat air patrols, in and over the United Sates.[/size][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][size=+2][size=-1]The Department of Defense (DOD) estimates its “burn rate” of monthly expenses at $6.4 billion in Iraq and $1.3 billion in Afghanistan. CRS points out that DOD did not include the cost of replacing worn out equipment and upgrades to facilities in theater. Adding those and a few other costs calculates to a monthly “burn rate” of $8.1 billion in Iraq; $1.6 billion in Afghanistan, and a total burn rate of $9.9 billion per month.[/size][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][size=+2][size=-1]The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has made projections for possible future costs. That agency projects total additional costs of $371 billion for the years 2007 to 2016, making a grand total of $811 billion. (This CBO estimate assumes an almost immediate downturn in annual war costs; however, it is questionable whether we have crossed that peak.)[/size][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][size=+2][size=-1]DOD’s accounting methods continue to be problematic. The $7.1 billion that CRS reported earlier it could “not track” continues to go untracked. It appears that CRS found another $4 billion that it could “not track” .[/size][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][size=+2][size=-1]Furthermore, DOD’s reports on war costs are incomplete and “understate expenses by over $20 billion because DOD’s financial system for tracking war costs has excluded certain types of expenses”.[/size][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][size=+2][size=-1]DOD also refuses to provide any comprehensive estimate for the costs to replace and repair all worn out equipment.[/size][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][size=+2][size=-1]There has been discussion of an “in-house” Army estimate of its “reset” costs at $36 billion; the Marine Corps has estimated $11.7 billion for themselves. However, these estimates do not appear to be comprehensive.[/size][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][size=+2][size=-1]Public estimates of the number of troops deployed for Iraq do not always include those performing support in Kuwait and elsewhere in the region. CRS estimates total troop deployments for Operation Iraqi Freedom in September 2005 to be 260,000.[/size][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][size=+2][size=-1]Average per troop costs for Iraq are between $355,000 and $360,000 per individual, per year; this dollar amount has been increasing since 2003.[/size][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][size=+2][size=-1]Winslow T. Wheeler is the author of The Wastrels of Defense.[/size][/size][/font]
 
That agency projects total additional costs of $371 billion for the years 2007 to 2016, making a grand total of $811 billion



!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
[size=+2]Bush's War on Terrorism is Now the Fifth Mostly Costly in US History[/size]

[size=+2]Costs of Major U.S. Wars[/size]

[size=+2]By CounterPunch News Service[/size]

[size=-1]Costs of Major U.S. Wars (All dollars in billions; source: Congressional Research Service)
[/size]


[size=-1]War
Current (Then Year) Dollars
Constant (FY 2007) Dollars[/size]


[size=-1]American Revolution[/size][size=-1]
$ 0.12
$ 3.577[/size]


[size=-1]War of 1812[/size][size=-1]
$ 0.89
$ 1.126[/size]


[size=-1]Mexican War[/size][size=-1]
$ 0.82
$ 1.987[/size]


[size=-1]Civil War (US)[/size][size=-1]
$ 2.30
$ 56.297
[/size]


[size=-1]Civil War (CSA)[/size][size=-1]
$ 1.0
$ 24.506[/size]


[size=-1]Spanish-American War[/size][size=-1]
$ 0.27
$ 7.286[/size]


[size=-1]World War I[/size][size=-1]
$ 33.0
$ 642.0[/size]


[size=-1]World War II[/size][size=-1]
$ 296.0
$ 3,211.0[/size]


[size=-1]Korea[/size][size=-1]
$ 67.0
$ 691.0[/size]


[size=-1]Vietnam[/size][size=-1]
$ 111.0
$ 650.0[/size]


[size=-1]Desert Storm[/size][size=-1]
$ 61.0
$ 92.0[/size]


[size=-1]Global War On Terrorism[/size][size=-1]
n/a
[/size]
[size=-1]$439.0[/size]

[size=-1]The current war is now the fifth most expensive in U.S. history (behind World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War). If the Congressional Budget Office correctly projects 2007 to 2016 GWOT costs at $371 billion, the current war's total becomes $810 billion, which would make it America's second most expensive war (second only to World War II).
Click here to see the CRS table, as distributed on Capitol Hill.[/size]
 
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