President George W. Bush
will ask Congress for $74.7 billion in extra spending this year to
cover the costs of the Iraq war, humanitarian aid and homeland
security, the White House said.
The funds will bring the U.S. deficit for the current fiscal
year close to a record $400 billion, an administration official
told reporters at a briefing. The biggest deficit, $290 billion,
came in 1992. Bush will detail the plan at the Pentagon today.
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“This is just the beginning, this is the first
downpayment,” Democratic Senator Robert Byrd said after Bush met
with him and other lawmakers who write spending bills. Other funds
will come in the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, he said.
The war’s price-tag may give pause to lawmakers already
skeptical of Bush’s $726 billion tax cut proposal as the U.S.
faces a budget deficit for the second year in a row, said Norm
Ornstein, congressional analyst with the American Enterprise
Institute.
Bloomberg News
