$924 billion for more war

[bigtree]

Bush unveils $924bn defense request

February 06, 2007 09:12am
Agence France-Presse

PRESIDENT George W. Bush presented the US Congress with a mammoth $US716.5 billion ($924 billion) budget request overnight to fund wars in Iraq and Afganistan and pay for a major expansion of the US military.

Bush's defense budget, unveiled as part of a larger government budget plan for fiscal 2008, seeks to acquire more troops, warships and aircraft for a force strained by the four-year old war in Iraq.

The budget request came in three pieces - $US481.4 billion for the Pentagon's 2008 base budget; $US141.7 billion for the "global war on terrorism'' in 2008; and $93.4 billion to cover additional war costs in the current fiscal year to September 30.

"The resources we devote to defense should be at the level to adequately meet the challenges of the global strategic environment the United States faces today,'' said Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

But Representative Ike Skelton, chairman of the House Armed Services, said the sums involved were "staggering.''

"We cannot provide an adequate national defense on the cheap, but neither can we afford to simply ratify the President's request without performing the due diligence and oversight our constitution requires,'' he said.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21179497-38198,00.html



http://journals.democraticunderground.com/bigtree

[Hav]

1. .

Yeah, unbelievable.
But the arms industry must be quite happy.

[DaveJ]

2. Welcome to the military industrial complex

There are so many wonderful things we could be doing, but * is saying that you're of no use if you aren't making war.



http://www.warresisters.org/piechart.htm

[TahitiNut]

3. Yep. And the GOP will claim they have to reduce taxes on the rich to pay for this, too.

It's government by Lewis Carroll ... on an acid trip.