Bush wants another 46 Billion

[Never Here]

Bush asks for $46 billion more for wars By ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press Writer

17 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - President Bush asked Congress on Monday for another $46 billion to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and finance other national security needs. "We must provide our troops with the help and support they need to get the job done," Bush said.

The figure brings to $196.4 billion the total requested by the administration for operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere for the budget year that started Oct. 1. It includes $189.3 billion for the Defense Department, $6.9 billion for the State Department and $200 million for other agencies.

To date, Congress has already provided more than $455 billion for the Iraq war, with stepped-up military operations running about $10 billion a month. The war has claimed the lives of more than 3,830 members of the U.S. military and more than 73,000 Iraqi civilians.

Bush made his request in the Roosevelt Room after meeting in the Oval Office with leaders of veterans service organizations, a fallen Marine's family and military personnel who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The White House originally asked for $141.7 billion for the Pentagon to prosecute the Iraq and Afghanistan missions and asked for $5.3 billion more in July. The latest request includes $42.3 billion more for the Pentagon — already revealed in summary last month — and is accompanied by a modified State Department request bringing that agency's total for the 2008 budget year to almost $7 billion.

Bush said any member of Congress who wants to see success in Iraq, and see U.S. troops return home, should strongly support the request.

"I know some in Congress are against the war and are seeking ways to demonstrate that opposition," Bush said. "I recognize their position and they should make their views heard. But they ought to make sure our troops have what it takes to succeed. Our men and women on the front lines should not be caught the middle of partisan disagreements in Washington, D.C."

Democrats were not swayed.

"We've been fighting for America's priorities while the president continues investing only in his failed war strategy — and wants us to come up with another $200 billion and just sign off on it?" said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. "President Bush should not expect Congress to rubber stamp his latest supplemental request. We're not going to do that."

The State Department is requesting $550 million to combat drug trafficking in Mexico and Central America, $375 million for the West Bank and Gaza and $239 million for diplomatic costs in Iraq.

Top House lawmakers have already announced that they do not plan to act on Bush's request until next year, though they anticipate providing interim funds when completing a separate defense funding bill this fall. Bush asked lawmakers to approve the request before the holidays.

"We must provide our troops with the help and support they need to get the job done," Bush said. "Parts of this war are complicated, but one part is not, and that is America should do what it takes to support our troops and protect our people."

Congress already has approved more than $5 billion for new vehicles whose V-shaped undercarriages provide much better protection against mines and roadside bombs. It's likely that Congress will quickly grant $11 billion more to deliver more than 7,000 of the vehicles.

The delays in submitting the remaining war funding request were in part due to unease among congressional Republicans about receiving it during the veto override battle involving a popular bill reauthorizing a children's health insurance program.

The request also includes $724 million for U.N. peacekeeping efforts in the war-torn Darfur region in Sudan, $106 million in fuel oil or comparable assistance to North Korea as a reward for the rogue nation's promises to cease its efforts to develop nuclear weapons. Another $350 million would go to fight famine in Africa.

For the Pentagon, the latest request includes:

_$1 billion for military construction projects, including improvements at airfields and other U.S. bases in Iraq.

_$1 billion to expand the Iraqi security forces.

_$1 billion to train National Guard units.

All told, the $189.3 billion Pentagon request for 2008 includes:

_$77 billion for military operations and maintenance.

_$30.5 billion for to protect U.S. forces from roadside bombs, snipers, and other threats.

_$46.5 billion to repair and replace equipment that has been damaged or destroyed in combat or worn out in harsh conditions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

___

Associated Press writer Deb Riechmann contributed to this report in Washington

[questionmark]

Why so little come on, America can afford it, just will increase the deficit slightly... who cares.

My suggestion is that everybody under 18 should emigrate from the US and leave the debt to those who caused it.

[Neognosis]

"We must provide our troops with the help and support they need to get the job done," Bush said. "Parts of this war are complicated, but one part is not, and that is America should do what it takes to support our troops and protect our people."

Uh, except draft people, ration food or gas or goods, have scrap metal drives, re-tool american industry to provide for the troops (we keep getting stuff from foreign makers. Imagine, equipping our troops with stuff made in another country....) increas taxes to pay for the war, basically what he means is that we must provide our troops with the help and support they need to get the job done UNLESS it makes people have to sacrafice anything personally, because then they might examine what's going on more and give up some of this false patriotism and come to their senses.

"patriotic" americans will support anything if they get to put a ribbon on their car and a pin on their lapel. Ask us to give something up, though. Only then do most of us suddenly start to "care" about world events.

We're involved in what the president calls the most important struggle of our civilization....yet I can buy 40 gallons of gas and take it out onto a lake and burn it all in my boat without so much as a luxury tax. What's not right with that picture?

Edited October 22, 2007 by Neognosis

[stevewinn]

Wont the US recoup all the money over a number of years? hasnt the US got contracts in Iraq and sold the Iraqi police and army equipment?

[questionmark]

Wont the US recoup all the money over a number of years? hasnt the US got contracts in Iraq and sold the Iraqi police and army equipment?

Nope, the Chinese sold the police equipment (we had a thread about that) and the Army uses old Kalashnikov ...

[Neognosis]

Some of our corporations will recoup some of the money...which they will avoid paying proper tax on for the most part. Basically, I feel as if I'm paying taxes, that money goes to Iraq, from there it goes into the pocket of some executives at Halliburton, and then it gets hidden or banked offshore.

Overly simplistic, but I'm trying to make a point about how it seems to me.

[questionmark]

We're involved in what the president calls the most important struggle of our civilization....yet I can buy 40 gallons of gas and take it out onto a lake and burn it all in my boat without so much as a luxury tax. What's not right with that picture?

You should get yourself a Yanmar D 36 for your boat... makes it a little slower but you can go 40 minutes to the gallon at 80%. (I just did it for my toy).

[Bob26003]

Sure could hire alot of teachers or get alot of kids health insurance with that money.

Those criminals.

Wonder how much will go down the tubes on these so called reconstruction schemes?

Wonder how much will just disappear?

[Bob26003]

Some of our corporations will recoup some of the money...which they will avoid paying proper tax on for the most part. Basically, I feel as if I'm paying taxes, that money goes to Iraq, from there it goes into the pocket of some executives at Halliburton, and then it gets hidden or banked offshore.

Overly simplistic, but I'm trying to make a point about how it seems to me.

Don't forget about the blackwater mercenaries.

[questionmark]

Some of our corporations will recoup some of the money...which they will avoid paying proper tax on for the most part. Basically, I feel as if I'm paying taxes, that money goes to Iraq, from there it goes into the pocket of some executives at Halliburton, and then it gets hidden or banked offshore.

Overly simplistic, but I'm trying to make a point about how it seems to me.

didn't Halliburton change its legal status from American to somewhere in the ME ?

[Bob26003]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6621486727392146155

Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers

"RIVETING, POWERFUL" "BLEW MY MIND"

The story of what happens to everyday Americans when corporations go to war.

Acclaimed director Robert Greenwald (Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, Outfoxed) takes you inside the lives of soldiers, truck drivers, widows and children who have been changed forever as a result of profiteering in the reconstruction of Iraq. Iraq for Sale uncovers the connections between private corporations making a killing in Iraq (Blackwater, Halliburton/KBR, CACI and Titan) and the decision makers who allow them to do so.

[Atheist God]

didn't Halliburton change its legal status from American to somewhere in the ME ?

It's head office is now in Dubai.... It's in the mountain that looks like a giant skull.

[Michelle]

didn't Halliburton change its legal status from American to somewhere in the ME ?

Not that I'm aware of...

People need to realize that Halliburton isn't a single entity...the 'endless resources' that they have are smaller companies that they pay very well and are familier with what the job entails. Halliburton subcontracts a huge amount of the work out that you can't do in a suit and tie....in other words, small mom & pop type businesses that are already established in the earea if possible.

[Bob26003]

Atheist is an idiot.

Take it back!

[questionmark]

Not that I'm aware of...

People need to realize that Halliburton isn't a single entity...the 'endless resources' that they have are smaller companies that they pay very well and are familier with what the job entails. Halliburton subcontracts a huge amount of the work out that you can't do in a suit and tie....in other words, small mom & pop type businesses that are already established in the earea if possible.

Sorry, but you are misinformed:

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Business/story?i...2429&page=1

They want to avoid taxes, so they are Dubaities now.

[Michelle]

Sorry, but you are misinformed:

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Business/story?i...2429&page=1

They want to avoid taxes, so they are Dubaities now.

I wasn't misinformed...I hadn't heard and I said as such.

[Neognosis]

You should get yourself a Yanmar D 36 for your boat... makes it a little slower but you can go 40 minutes to the gallon at 80%. (I just did it for my toy).

We use the boat exclusively for wakeboarding, thus we have a wakeboarding boat. We used to ride an aweful lot, but this year we cut WAY down for the simple fact that we feel it is downright unpatriotic to burn so much gas while there is a war in the middle east. Even if the president talks out of both sides of his mouth about it...

[questionmark]

We use the boat exclusively for wakeboarding, thus we have a wakeboarding boat. We used to ride an aweful lot, but this year we cut WAY down for the simple fact that we feel it is downright unpatriotic to burn so much gas while there is a war in the middle east. Even if the president talks out of both sides of his mouth about it...

I did it mostly because I am doing what I can to reduce green house emissions, that is smaller car, solar panels on the roof (my electric bill is reduced by 60%), better insulation in the house and a more economic motor on my fishing boat. My CO₂ footprint was reduced by 70%.

[AROCES]

Would support for the war increse then if it only cost a million dollars?

[BrucePrime]

Insane? I'll tell you what's insane. These talking pictures, that's what's insane! They're putting Vaudeville right under, they are!

[The Skeptic Eric Raven]

We need to get the heck out. The waste of money & lives is horrible. Its unwinable. By the way, I am saying this as a conservative.

[Neognosis]

Would support for the war increse then if it only cost a million dollars?

No.

But it would be less offensive to my fellow countrymen who make decisions based on what it costs them, not on what is right or wrong.

[ninjadude]

Would support for the war increse then if it only cost a million dollars?

Where would the other 195.9 Billion dollars go do you figure?

[Never Here]

US spent $43.5 billion on intel in 2007 By PAMELA HESS, Associated Press Writer

1 hour, 8 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The U.S. government spent $43.5 billion on intelligence in 2007, according to the first official disclosure under a new law implementing recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission.

Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell released the newly declassified figure Tuesday. In a statement, the DNI said there would be no additional disclosures of classified budget information beyond the overall spending figure because "such disclosures could harm national security."

How the money is divided among the 16 intelligence agencies and exactly what it is spent on is classified. It includes salaries for about 100,000 people, multibillion dollar secret satellite programs, aircraft, weapons, electronic sensors, intelligence analysts, spies, computers and software.

Much of the intelligence budget __ about 70 percent__ goes to contractors for the procurement of technology and services including analysis, according to a May 2007 chart from the DNI's office.

Intelligence spending has increased by a third over 10 years ago, in inflation adjusted dollars, according to Steve Kosiak at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

In 1997 and 1998, the CIA voluntarily disclosed the intelligence budget at $26.6 billion and $26.7 billion, respectively. That revelation came in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from Steven Aftergood, director of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists in Washington, D.C.

Aftergood said he was somewhat surprised that the 2007 budget is not higher. He had conservatively estimated it at $45 billion. The national intelligence budget does not include at least $10 billion spent by military intelligence operations.

The intelligence budget itself increased sharply after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, according to heavily censored U.S. government charts.

The intelligence agencies have fought multiple legal attempts to disclose their budgets, including the CIA, the National Reconnaissance Office, National Security Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, and the agencies inside the State, Treasury and Homeland Security departments, among others. They have argued that adversaries can divine secrets about intelligence activities if they can track budget fluctuations year to year.

According to a law signed by President Bush in August, overall intelligence spending must be disclosed 30 days after the close of the fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30. The government must also disclose the figure for 2008. Beginning in 2009, the president may waive the disclosure requirement if he can make the case to Congress it would harm national security.

The requirement was a provision of a broad security measure carrying out recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission in 2004. The panel argued that overclassification does not contribute to good government, and that revealing the overall spending for intelligence activities would help Congress in its oversight duties.

A top intelligence official inadvertently disclosed the overall intelligence spending figure two years ago at a conference in San Antonio, Texas, that was open to the public. She said it was $44 billion.

National security analysts outside the government usually estimate the annual budget at about 10 percent of the total U.S. defense budget, which in 2007 was about $430 billion plus nearly $200 billion in war spending. These analysts believe around 80 percent of the intelligence budget is consumed by the NRO, NSA, DIA and NGA, the national military intelligence agencies.

(This version CORRECTS INSERTS 5th graf to correct budget comparison for inflation)

[Unlimited]

43.5 billion on intelligence ..wow...how much do they spend running cover-ups...half of that..