Untitled Document
By refusing to estimate the costs for the war in Iraq, Bush makes his budget deficits
look much smaller than they actually are.
With two full years of experience waging war in Iraq, President George W. Bush
should have some idea of how much it will cost to continue the fight next year.
But when he submitted his 2006 budget to Congress in February, it didn't contain
one penny for combat in Iraq or Afghanistan. Sunny optimist that he is, Bush
wasn't operating on the assumption that the mission would actually be accomplished
by then.
Instead, Bush insisted it would be impossible to know how much would be needed,
so instead of including anything in the regular budget, he plans to continue
the tradition of coming to Congress for emergency supplemental appropriations
when war funds get low.
Coincidentally, that approach has the side effect of making the federal budget
deficit appear smaller than it actually is. Far smaller, considering that spending
in Iraq has averaged more than $5 billion a month.
Shortly after he submitted his 2006 budget, Bush went to Congress to ask for
$82 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (most of which was for Iraq).
So far, Bush has asked for, and received, about $350 billion for combat and
reconstruction efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Even in a federal budget measured
in the trillions of dollars, that's a substantial amount to keep off the budget.
Congress is showing increasing signs of impatience with such irresponsible
bookkeeping. After Bush submitted his 2006 budget, U.S. Sen. Robert C. Byrd,
D-W.V., persuaded his colleagues to pass a resolution calling for the war funding
to be included in the regular budget.
"The president will not tell the American people what the war in Iraq
will cost," Byrd said. "By understating the deficits, the American
people are being led down a primrose path. That is dishonesty."
The U.S. House appears ready to include $45 billion to fund the wars in its
regular spending bills for next year. The Senate is likely to do the same, even
without a request from the Pentagon.
If Bush won't honestly budget for the cost of these wars, Congress is right
to do it for him.
The war in Iraq has a real cost, and a real impact on the federal deficit.
Budgeting for that cost should not be an impossible task.
In fact, it's the least the nation should expect from the president who got
us into this mess to begin with.
