More War Funding Signed by President
On December 26, President Bush signed the Consolidated Appropriations Bill passed by Congress the previous week. The Act wraps up the budget for fiscal year 2008 and provides an additional $70 billion for war. Fiscal year 2008 began October 1, 2007.
| The only appropriations bill which passed Congress AND was signed by the President prior to December was the Defense appropriations bill. The bill contained $11.6 billion in war-related spending to speed up the production of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected armored vehicles, or MRAPs.
The following table presents our estimates of what this will add to total Iraq War spending: |
| Funding |
War-related Total |
Iraq War |
| Consolidated appropriations bill |
$70 |
$55.97 |
| Defense appropriations bill |
$11.63 |
$10.47 |
| Total for FY2008 so far |
$81.63 |
$66.44 |
| |
| Total Iraq War Funding |
$522.5 |
|
| Total Iraq War funding includes $456.1 billion already appropriated plus $66.4 billion added for fiscal year 2008. The administration will continue to pursue more funding for FY2008 as it requested a total of $196 billion in supplemental appropriations for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The funding so far for FY2008 is less than half of the requested funding. To read more about the original February request and July and October amendments, click here.
Congress originally pushed to have a timetable associated with the additional funding for FY2008. The administration threatened to veto any restriction placed on the war spending.
|
| Note on Iraq War breakdown:
NPP's estimate of the Iraq War total includes 80% of general war-related funding plus specified spending on the Iraq Freedom Fund ($3.74 billion) and Iraq Security Forces Fund ($1.5 billion). This estimate is based on past spending patterns. NPP attributed 90% of the MRAP funding included in the Defense appropriations bill of $11.6 billion to the Iraq War. While the Iraq War is the reason for expediting the provision of MRAPs, it is reasonable to attribute that a portion of this funding to the war in Afghanistan.
Sources:
Consolidated appropriations bill
$70 billion in war-related spending
Defense appropriations bill
|
Updated: Fri, 01/25/2008 - 17:16
|
Comments
Wow
Our country schools are in need of that money that could be going to help our children get a better education as well as trying to stop the violence that is found in our school that are making our children afraid to go to school. I think that $70 billion dollars would be a good start to make a turn around.
DOD costs
I was wondering if you could provide the basic funding for D.O.D. from 2002-2008 then show how much additional funding for just Iraq & Afghanistan from 2002-2008.
It is hard to follow the funding process sometimes and this would simplify it at least for me.
Thank you and we asppreciate your dedication and work on this matter.
Peace
your request
Great suggestion, and it is on our to-do list. I'll let you know as soon as we have it available.
Best,
Pam
war spending
Think of all the other, more important things we could do with this money. It is such a waste! We should use some of this money for enviormental protection, education, and animal shelters. So much more could be done that way.
War vs illegal immigrants
I just received an email that lists many sources saying basically that illegal immigrants cost the U.S. more than the Iraq war. Do you have any statistics comparing the two? Thanks.
response to your question on war vs. illegal immigrants
We don't have specific statistics on this question since we don't research the immigration issue, however, we have a strong instinct that the information you received deserves to be challenged and suggest you contact the National Immigration Law Center - http://www.nilc.org/ - with your question.
Sorry for slow reply
Elysse - We just instituted comments on the NPP website this month, so we're still working out the kinks on 'approving' comments and responding. So, if you even read this response, here goes:
I would recommend linking to another page - either our trade-offs page or the cost of war counter and saying something like:
To find out how much the Iraq War is costing your community, go to: URL
Our trade-offs page and cost of war page provide access to the breakdowns of the cost of the Iraq War by town, CD and state, and you can see what that money could provide in terms of other services.
I wanted to see the clock
I wanted to see the clock for daily expense on Iraq war and
also some interesting use for that money like
how many people can be employed with a minimum wage of 8 dollar per hour with that sum
how many can be insured
how many drop-outs can go to college and such
Thanks
Billions Lost
Think of the Good All This Money Could Have Achieved...
What A Waste Bush and Gang...What a Waste!
May They Be Arrested and Charged With Crimes Against Humanity!
Amen
One-liner request
Thanks, Anita! This is a great summary. However, I would love to have a one-line summary that I could include in my email signature that would make people want to click on a link to this webpage. Any thoughts?