FCNL: Iraq Supplemental Appropriation & the Federal Budget

[Guest guest]

Iraq Supplemental Appropriation & the Federal Budget

 

FCNL Key Contacts

Joe Volk

What do you think about the following message?:

" Please approve this additional $64 billion taxpayer dollars for the war in

Iraq, but don’t ask me to count these costs in my budgeting process. "

That’s basically the message from the White House this week.

Here’s what President Bush did. Last week, he said that his budget request for

the Pentagon in 2006 was $420 billion. Then this week he made a " emergency "

supplemental appropriations request for additional military spending in 2005 of

$64 billion dollars for Iraq, plus additional money for the war in Afghanistan

and other programs. (The supplemental request in total comes to $81.9 billion.)

The president does not want a real debate on the costs of the war in Iraq,

either in human terms or in its consequences for the federal budget. The

Congress has already approved more than $150 billion in spending for the war in

Iraq and its direct consequences. When this new emergency supplemental is

approved those costs will rise to more than $200 billion. One Congressional

estimate suggests the Iraq invasion, occupation and subsequent costs could rise

to between $460 billion and $645 billion in the next ten years.

As the U.S. approaches the two year anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, the

president is continuing to block any substantive Congressional role in planning

for U.S. operations in Iraq. And Congress is accepting this arrangement.

Do you agree? We don’t. We seek a world free of war and the threat of war. We

oppose military spending, including the supplemental funding request for Iraq.

But FCNL also believes this is not a truthful budget process.

The " budget " is intended to be a document that implies a thought-out process of

planning for the future. A " supplemental appropriation " should be used to obtain

quick congressional approval to spend money on an urgent, unanticipated

emergency. The President is misusing these terms to be a spendthrift on war but

look like a belt-tightening conservative.

Newspaper reports suggest that President Bush will also seek another

supplemental appropriation for Iraq in the fall of 2005. He knows that now, but

he doesn’t want Congress to suffer sticker shock. So rather than providing an

estimate of future spending, the president asks for some money now, and then

comes back to ask for more later. Congress is pretending not to notice. Voters

need to convince their Members of Congress to face up to the money crunch now.

What should Congress do? Congress should call President Bush on this budget

deception. They should reserve " supplemental appropriations " requests only for

true, unanticipated emergencies, like the tsumani which is estimated to have

killed a quarter of million people and destroyed communities across a quarter of

the planet. They should include in their budget resolution the anticipated costs

of a continuing war and occupation.

In short, Congress should put the Iraq war and occupation costs into its budget

resolution and regular appropriations process. That’s the only way to tell the

American taxpayer the truth about federal spending priorities.

_____

The Next Step for Iraq: Join FCNL's Iraq Campaign,

http://www.fcnl.org/iraq/index.htm

Contact Congress and the Administration: http://capwiz.com/fconl/dbq/officials/.

Order FCNL publications and " War is Not the Answer " campaign bumper stickers and

yard

signs:

http://www.fcnl.org/newinfo/special_pub.htm

http://www.fcnl.org/iraq-war.htm

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http://www.fcnl.org/suprt/indx.htm

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______

Friends Committee on National Legislation

245 Second St. NE, Washington, DC 20002-5795

fcnl * http://www.fcnl.org/

phone: (202)547-6000 * toll-free: (800)630-1330

We seek a world free of war and the threat of war

We seek a society with equity and justice for all

We seek a community where every person's potential may be fulfilled

We seek an earth restored.

 

 

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