Bush's 3-trillion-dollar budget boosts war spending

US News

Feb 5, 2007, 16:53 GMT

Washington - US President George W Bush is asking Congress for nearly 3 trillion dollars in his budget for fiscal year 2008, with about one-quarter earmarked for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the defence budget, according to news reports on the document to be released Monday. US President George W. Bush's 2008 budget as delivered to the Senate Budget Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC Monday 05 February 2007. EPA/SHAWN THEW

US President George W. Bush's 2008 budget as delivered to the Senate Budget Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC Monday 05 February 2007. EPA/SHAWN THEWWith the exception of defence, which would get a 10 per cent boost, overall spending increases would be limited to 1 per cent for 2008, less than enough to keep up with last year's inflation rate of 2.5 per cent. Bush is calling for a balanced budget by 2012. Expenditures for public health care - Medicare for senior citizens and Medicaid for the poor - would be reduced by 80 billion dollars, shifting more of the burden of health for the needy to the individual states, Cable News Network reported. The 716-billion-dollar defence segment of the budget includes 245 billion dollars for fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan and 481 billion dollars to cover the 10 per cent increase in regular Pentagon spending for 2008. The defence request includes funds to increase the size of the Army by more than 13 percent to 547,000 and the Marine Corps by 15 percent to 202,000 over four years, Bloomberg news service reported. Bush has been criticized for funding the wars through special requests to Congress in an effort to keep the appearance of the budget smaller. But the war funding for 2008 is being included in the new budget request, senior administration officials were quoted as saying. If approved by Congress, the war spending would bring to 745 billion dollars the amount of money the US has spent on the two wars since the terrorist attacks of September 2001, the Washington Post reported over the weekend. Democrats who are in control of Congress for the first time in 13 years have vowed to have a louder voice in making decisions about the war, and many oppose the Republican leader's deployment of another 21,000 troops to Iraq to help bring sectarian fighting in Baghdad under control. Democrats are expected to examine war expenditures closely to regain some control over the direction of US policy in Iraq. In other budget proposals: - The US would spend 145.2 billion dollars on the 'global' war on terrorism. - Planning beyond 2008 would balance the budget by 2012. Bush inherited a surplus from his predecessor, centre-left Democrat Bill Clinton, but through tax cuts, a slowing economy and increased costs for defence and homeland security, the deficit fell 22 per cent in 2006 to 248 billion dollars, its second decline in a row. - Although Bush pledged increased spending on alternative energy, the 2008 proposal outlines about 1.2 billion dollars - the same amount Bush proposed for 2001, CNN reported. - 1.82 billion dollars for the US State Department for 'strengthening' democracy in Iraq, including 400 million dollars for job creation and building the Iraqi governance system. - 5.4 billion dollars for AIDS research and prevention, 300 million dollars for malaria research and 3 billion dollars for the Millennium Challenge Account for poor countries. - Bush also called for 2 billion dollars in unused tax benefits for a direct rail link to John F Kennedy International Airport in New York from lower Manhattan, reports said. © 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

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American PatriotFeb 5th, 2007 - 17:25:54

Impeach the son of a gun.

Chimpeach for peace.

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Better American patriotFeb 5th, 2007 - 17:34:32

With more Democrats in charge we would be placidly and meekly kowtowing to terrorists and fanatics.

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FoundationFeb 5th, 2007 - 17:58:59

If any CEO managed a company as poorly as Bush has run this country he'd be tossed out in a hurry.

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joe kostukFeb 5th, 2007 - 18:13:06

Too bad George Bush did`nt come from a family of doctors or teachers, as one trillion dollars spent on healthcare and education would have huge lasting effects , hence a country of healthy and higly educated people, yet Bush would rather spend vast sums in a defense budget that will eventually only defend the sick and uneducated people of a once powerfull nation.
War mongrel replublicans never seem to see the outside the `WAR MACHINE` box.
Education and healthcare are the future of the people , by the people , for the people.
In god we trust , as that is all that is left for the people of a once proud nation.
God bless ,

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Sick and Tired.Feb 5th, 2007 - 18:21:18

The man is ill and out of control. Let us pray for the light to turn on in his life, that he may affect positive change.

'Hatred does not cease through hatred at any time. Hatred ceases through love. This is an unalterable law.' -- Shakyamuni Buddha.

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Bert convyFeb 5th, 2007 - 18:22:03

As I read this article, the thought occurred to me:
Can 3 trillion dollars really be considered 'setting a budget'?
Isn't that like saying, I'm going to spend every penny in the world and that's my budget.
Can it be called a budget when there's really no ceiling?
So, with Bush's new budget as inspiration, I am hereby setting my FY 2007 personal beer drinking and music buying budget at 6.8 gazillion. I hope that this figure meets with my wife and family's bipartisan approval.

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TCFeb 5th, 2007 - 18:31:27

What really frightens me the most these days is not Bush. 2/3 of America knows he's a disaster. That's old news. It's the 1/3 that still supports him that is truly frightening. How could anyone who has any knowledge of current events support him?

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ThinkFeb 5th, 2007 - 18:32:49

Schools are worse at money management than the Dept of Defense. Many districts are in the hole from spending on worthless initiatives, among other reasons. Giving them more money is not the solution, it's rewarding them for doing a poor job. To be fair, suit-happy individuals have hampered real change - you can't fire incompetent teachers, and you can't discipline children who refuse to learn. If you can't fix the real problem, maybe that witch-doctor psychologist giving the 'Fix our Schools Seminar' might have a solution!

Based on their past track record, what's to prevent schools from wasting more money?

And then there's healthcare. Paying for everyone's healthcare means eventually that paycheck to insurance companies will hit a ceiling. Faced with fixed income, insurance companies have to lower costs. This comes in the form of longer waiting times and unsupported procedures. Ask Canada. Ask the US Military.

I share your angst against President Bush. That said, there's no easy answer by just throwing more money at our domestic problems.

I wish we'd impeach judges who grant unentitled money, but there's a whole other slippery slope.

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NickFeb 5th, 2007 - 18:32:58

Peace? You think our stopping the war will result in peace? The only way to obtain peace is through victory.

Withdrawal will result in a larger war, one that will be fought on our shores, and tens to hundreds of millions of civilian casualties.

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Dubya is a foolFeb 5th, 2007 - 18:45:05

If anyone thinks that the dems would have somehow bowed to terrorists demands, or not attacked Al Quaeda in response to 9/11, they're (a) making wild assumptions because the dems were not in power post 9/11, until presently, and (b) making the inaccurate assumption Bush has somehow improved our security by attacking Iraq.

By Dubya's own admission, mistakes were made. Further, the neoconservatives used 9/11 to forward a hidden agenda by using faulty intellegence to connect Iraq to Al Quaeda.

No doubt the following is clear (1) Iraq had no WMD (i.e. no immediate threat posed to US security interests), and (2) Saddam Hussein had no documented or proven connection to 9/11 or open support for any terrorist networks (this isn't that crazy when you consider he was a dictator and power monger.)

Now Iraq is a hotbed for secretarian violence and terrorist networks. We're involved in a quagmire with no forseeable end or exit strategy.

Dubya came into office with a budget surplus, great economy, great strides towards healthcare reform, stem cell research, environmental reform, smaller beauracracy, and great increases in domestic education spending.

Now we have a huge deficit, slowing economy with huge consumer debt, no healthcare reform with reduced healthcare spending, legal obstructions to stem cell research, environmental reforms (withdrawing from Kyoto Accord, decreased energy regulation, and greater reliance upon foreign energy), the largest increase in the federal beauracracy in US history (addition of Dept. of Homeland Security), and a failed education policy (HeadStart) coupled with reduced education spending.

Mistakes were definately made, I'm just not sure they're limited to the war in Iraq.

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