Bush to Request $439.3B Defense Budget

[G_j]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,,-5590464,00.html

Bush to Request $439.3B Defense Budget

Friday February 3, 2006 4:16 AM

By LOLITA C. BALDOR

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush next week will request a $439.3 billion Defense Department budget for 2007, a nearly 5 percent increase over this year, according to senior Pentagon officials and documents obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.

The spending plan would include $84.2 billion for weapons programs, a nearly 8 percent increase, including billions of dollars for fighter jets, Navy ships, helicopters and unmanned aircraft. The total includes a substantial increase in weapons spending for the Army, which will get $16.8 billion in the 2007 budget, compared with $11 billion this year.

Senior defense officials provided the totals on condition of anonymity because the defense budget will not be publicly released until Monday. The figures did not include about $50 billion that Bush administration officials said Thursday they would request as a down payment for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2007. The administration said war costs for 2006 would total $120 billion.

The budget plan continues administration efforts to transform the military into a more efficient, agile fighting force, while also making investments in new technologies that will better equip troops to fight the global war on terror.

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edit, might as well include the$e stories:

http://www.nbc30.com/news/6686962/detail.html

Bush Wants $120 Billion More For Wars

POSTED: 4:54 pm EST February 2, 2006
UPDATED: 5:47 pm EST February 2, 2006

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration said Thursday it will ask Congress for $120 billion more for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and $18 billion more this year for hurricane relief.

If approved by Congress, the war money would push spending related to the wars toward a staggering half-trillion dollars.

Details of the requests are not final, but the 2007 budget proposal that President Bush will submit next week will reflect the totals for planning purposes. The president also will ask Congress to devote an additional $2.3 billion this year for prepare for a bird flu epidemic.

About $70 billion of the new war money will be requested for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan this year, bringing total spending on the two campaigns to $120 billion for the current budget year. The other $50 billion in new war money will be set aside in the 2007 budget for the first few months of the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. More money will likely be needed in 2007.

The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that $320 billion has been spent on Iraq and Afghanistan since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, including $50 billion that Congress sent Bush in December.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,,-5590474,00.html

Senate Passes $70 Billion Tax Bill

Friday February 3, 2006 4:31 AM


By MARY DALRYMPLE

AP Tax Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate passed $70 billion in tax cuts Thursday, one step in an effort that Republican leaders hope will preserve President Bush's tax reductions for capital gains and dividends.

<snip>
Republicans expect the final version of the bill to extend tax cuts for capital gains and dividends. It will be up to negotiators to determine how to use their instructions to cut taxes by as much as $70 billion over five years to deal with the growing alternative minimum tax and expiring tax breaks for investors.

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[Tom Yossarian Joad]

1. Sorry, I read $439.38 and was feeling okay....

Then I saw the "B."

[Lars39]

2. There's our healthcare for everyone, prescription drugs,

infrastructure repairs, Katrina-damage repairs, etc. :(

[FormerRepublican]

3. By the time Bush is done, the US will be completely bankrupt...

...and owned by China.

[johnnypneumatic]

4. Is that all? Time for another tax cut then!

[Wordie]

5. Coming right on the heels of cutbacks in social programs for the poor,

seniors, disabled, and student loan cuts, passed just yesterday in Congress, this is obscene. :(

On edit:
And that $439.3B Defense Budget is for just one year!

[Cleita]

6. Noooooooooooooooooo!

This has to stop now!

[htuttle]

7. Half a TRILLION dollars

...most of which will go to greedy contractors acting as front corporations for the Bush Mob.

So WHY can't we afford universal single-payer health insurance?

[VPStoltz]

8. And the Iraqi "insurgency" is making its munitions in kitchens out of

spare parts and hardware from local stores and we can't "win" with $400 bil a year. Sounds to me like someone is getting away with A LOT of our money.

[G_j]

9. ~~