Bush To Seek $60 Billion Or More To Cover Mounting Iraq Costs-WP

[Nambe]

NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)

The White House has informed congressional leaders that it is preparing a new budget request for between $60 billion and $70 billion to help cover the mounting costs of the reconstruction and military occupation of Iraq, sources on Capitol Hill said, The Washington Post reports in its Thursday edition.

The planned request reflects the deepening cost of the five-month-old U.S. occupation and serves as an acknowledgment by the administration that it vastly underestimated the cost of restoring order in Iraq ---

[Emboldened Chimp]

1. More money to Halliburton and Bechtel?

This is disgusting.

[indepat]

10. Lots more money to Bechtel, Halliburton

et al.

[pfitz59]

2. Halliburton,Worldcom and Bechtel......

need some more "no-bid" contracts! R.I.C.O. the bastards!

[Virginian]

17. Are they even US companies?

Or have they established a PO box in the Bahamas so they don't have to pay taxes on all our money they are getting?


Campaigning Bush: "It's your money"

Now: "We need your money to give our friends. We will tell you they are reconstructing Iraq, but really it is too dangerous for them over there."

"Why should we start telling the truth now?"

[Chango]

3. Unbelievable......

This money thing is what's eventually going to turn the tide against the Bush War.

Meanwhile, can we just cut out the middlemen and send our taxes directly to Halliburton and Bechtel?

[gratuitous]

4. Gee, another $60 billion (at least)

And considering the way these clowns count, you can bet the true number will be closer to $100 billion, but they can't say that all at once.

Meanwhile, we're cutting back security at ports of entry and combining Immigration and Custom Agent positions for lack of $20 million (that's one-fifth of one-tenth of one-sixtieth of the latest figure the Bushistas propose to funnel to Bechtel and Halliburton).

Tell me again, media whores, why the Republicans are more trusted on national security and budget matters? Because they seem pretty irresponsible in both areas to me!

ON EDIT: Correct math error which makes $20 million an even smaller percentage of $60 billion!

[madrchsod]

5. 60-70 billion dollars

when will the american people say no more?

[cliss]

6. the timing couldn't have been worse....

for the republicans. Their timing was just way off. Every day now, we're hearing huge $$$sums$$$, billions, trillions, all flying away on their little wings. The costs are just racking up like crazy.

All of this will be fresh in peoples' minds, just as they're getting ready for the re-election campaign.

So much for planning.

[Sal316]

7. Biden (I know) was on Real Time this week...

...and said there is $0 in next year's budget for Iraq. It's all going to be piecemeal. That way they can fly it in under the radar and not have to deal with as many questions about the other stuff (tax cuts, etc.)

It's disgusting.

[radfringe]

8. two interesting paragraphs...

The decisions to seek new funds from Congress and to try to strike a bargain at the United Nations signaled that President Bush is trying to resolve festering disputes over his administration's Iraq policies before they turn into political liabilities. Both the rising cost of the military operations and the failure of the administration to share the peacekeeping burden in Iraq have prompted growing criticism on Capitol Hill and by Democratic presidential candidates.

----snip----

Administration officials portrayed the initiative as a further evolution of the president's pledge to give the United Nations a "vital role" in the rebuilding of Iraq. But it also marked a reversal for an administration that had once argued that the United Nations would become irrelevant if it failed to back the U.S.-led invasion earlier this year. For the first time, the administration is now indicating a willingness to give other nations a greater say in Iraq's future.

----------------------

heard one reich-winger on the radio describe it as "...Bush is wimping out by crawling to the UN with his hat in hand and munching crow..."

[saigon68]

9. THE BASTARDS

Is anyone as outraged as I am over this???

$70,000,000,000.00 to blow the crap out of a country that has all the demeanor of a homeless drunk and panhandler on the streets of D. C.

I guess we have NO---

1. Children to educate in the U.S.

2. Seniors who need prescription drugs.

3. Unemployed workers here.

4. Veterans of this or prior Wars to take care of.

5. Crumbling infastructure to fix.

6. Electrical or water grid problems.

7. Problems with social security.

8. Lagging economy with 2 million fewer jobs than 3 years ago.


Ho- Hum what uncaring scum ---Cheney, Wolfie and the CHIMP.

[Snellius]

11. They'll take the money and run. Watch them ditch the U.N.

All this talk about "going back to the U.N." is just mouthwash to cover up their hellish bad breath. It's all a ruse to steady the quivering legs of wavering members of Congress who just got hit with major sticker shock.

[bif]

12. Let's just throw more money at the problem you created

And while you're at it Georgie, why not cut taxes again? That ought to fix the economy. And let's give all the Iraqis free health care while millions go uninsured here in the U.S. When are people going to start screaming about all this?

[argonne]

13. When we spend more time discussing THIS

rather than what B. Spears thinks about Bush!

---When are people going to start screaming about all this?----

[saigon68]

14. I'M SCREAMING

What useless scum, one wishes no ill will--- but I wonder how many out of work "patriots" still support the CHIMPANZEE and his OILY friends????

[Virginian]

15. Make Dubya pay for it

... and Rummy and anyone else who got a thrill out of the "Shock and Awe" of the war.

They broke it and now they want US to pay their friends to fix it.

If their parents had made them just a little more accountable for their actions when they were younger, maybe they wouldn't be blowing up buildings now.

These guys have a lot of money, let them be a little more responsible for the destruction they have caused. Freeze their assets. Dock their pay. Make them shoulder the burden at least proportionate to what they are expecting the little guy to do.

[Nottingham]

16. With 400,000 Americans unemployed lets Build Iraq

:crazy:

This is such a robbery of American people!

[deadeye]

18. Do you think alternative sources of energy would be competitive if

we spent $70 billion on research and development?

[UpInArms]

19. Peter Jennings on ABC Evening News said $65 - 75 Billion

and said that the cost of this war - when initially sold to the public (showing clips of Rummy the Dummy) was supposed to be covered by "Iraq's assets and coalition countries support" -

was a pretty good news piece.