President Bush’s 2005 budget proposal calls for multibillion-dollar increases to fight terrorism on the ground, in the air and overseas. That doesn’t even include the full military costs in Iraq and Afghanistan. Bush proposed a 14.4% increase for the nearly year-old Department of Homeland Security and other related programs, bringing spending there to about $47.4 billion. His request for military spending was ten times that at $402.6 billion. ”This nation has committed itself to the long war against terror,” Bush said. ”And we will see that war to its inevitable conclusion: the destruction of the terrorists.” The Pentagon proposal isn’t complete. By the end of the year, White House aides said, Bush will probably ask for as much as $50 billion more to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. That follows a similar tactic used last year, when the White House didn’t include funds for fighting those wars in the budget. It later won $87 billion from Congress. Full Story
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