Rumsfeld: Will Need Supplemental Iraq Spending In 2004

[Nambe]

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)

U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said Wednesday the Office of Management and Budget is already working on a supplemental spending bill to support the U.S. troops stationed in Iraq. ---

However, Rumsfeld said that the Pentagon has budgeted $3.9 billion per month for operations in Iraq for the period running from January of this year through September. Fiscal year 2004 begins on Oct. 1.

In addition to this spending, Rumsfeld said the Department of Defense is also spending $700 million a month for its operations in Afghanistan. The total cost of the war on terrorism worldwide, which includes the operations in Afghanistan, is $1.5 billion a month, Rumsfeld said.

When the Bush administration submitted its fiscal year 2004 budget, it forecast a deficit of $307 billion. This figure wouldn't include the costs of any supplemental spending bill.

Ride Don’t Drive It’s Global Cool

[SpiralHawk]

1. "All your tax dollars are belong to the war machine"

- Yr. pals at BFEE HQ

[htuttle]

2. How the hell do you spend $3.9 billion a month....

...and have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to show for it?

And: $700 million a month for Afghanistan? What can they possibly be spending it on? Nothing is going toward reconstruction, from what I can see, yet BILLIONS are being spent. On what?

[Mithras61]

3. So the REAL tally for the deficit will likely be closer to $380B

when you include the $6.1B/mo. for "anti-terror" operations (Afghanistan = $.7B, Iraq = $3.9B, Other = $1.5B)

(BTW, did YOU know that the invasion of Iraq was "anti-terror"? Me either. I thought it was to get rid of SH's WMD... Oh, that's right, they don't exist and haven't for close to a decade!)