Obviously, Bush and Eisenhower are like night and day

[reeds]

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."
President Dwight D. Eisenhower
April 16, 1953


Bush to Seek About $80 Bln for Military Operations



WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration plans to announce as early as Tuesday that it will seek about $80 billion in new funding for military operations this year in Iraq (news - web sites) and Afghanistan (news - web sites), administration and congressional sources



The new supplemental budget request would come on top of the $25 billion in emergency spending already approved for the current fiscal year, pushing total 2005 funding for military operations and equipment close to a record $105 billion.


Up to $650 million is expected to be included in the package to fund humanitarian aid, reconstruction efforts and military operations in Asian nations devastated by last month's tsunami, congressional aides said. The administration is also considering providing debt relief to Indonesia, the hardest-hit country, they said.


White House officials declined to comment on the size of the package or when it would be unveiled. But administration and congressional sources said they expected a White House announcement as early as Tuesday.


The funding request is expected to be formally submitted to Congress for approval next month after President Bush (news - web sites) sends up his fiscal 2006 budget on Feb. 7.


Congressional sources said the White House, for the first time, was expected to incorporate the spending request into the budget's deficit projections.


At nearly $105 billion, total funding for military operations in 2005 would be more than 13 times larger than Bush's budget for the Environmental Protection Agency (news - web sites), which is charged with keeping the nation's air, water and land pollution-free, and would be nearly as big as the state of California's annual budget.