WSJ: Iraq / Afghanistan spending , current fiscal year: $117.6 billion.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

U.S. Annual War Spending Grows

Even With Troop Cutbacks, Costs in Iraq, Afghanistan Will Reach $117.6 Billion
By DAVID ROGERS
March 8, 2006; Page A4

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB114178357697392103-TjKUdWN4qoenDbAFbOI8Ywp2O_M_20070308.html?mod=blogs

WASHINGTON -- As the U.S. enters its fourth year in Iraq this month, the annual cost of military operations is growing -- even as the Pentagon assumes the number of troops there will shrink.

Monthly expenditures are running at $5.9 billion; the U.S. commitment in Afghanistan adds roughly another $1 billion. Taken together, annual spending for the two wars will reach $117.6 billion for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30 -- 18% above funding for the prior 12 months.

That escalation reflects the fact that America's military today is a higher-cost war machine than the one that fought in Vietnam decades ago. But it has also produced bipartisan concern in Congress that "emergency spending" for Iraq has become a way for the Pentagon to meet other needs.

War costs are rising despite Pentagon estimates of lower personnel costs: $2.6 billion for 2006, or 14% less than in 2005. Offsetting that decline is an increased request for procurement of new equipment: $25.7 billion in 2006, up from the $18.8 billion Congress provided in 2005. And year-by-year comparisons show that appropriations for operations and maintenance spending for the Army and Marines are rising by better than 30%.

[skylarmae]

1. and the Reeve Foundation funding was eliminated in the pending

budget...and Dana Reeve passes away from lung cancer. Wonder if her friend Lance Armstrong regrets the propaganda 'ride' he took with georgie porgie so he could ask for cancer funding....??? not only didn't get what he asked for; but the R&R budget slashed as well