No end to US's war budget woes

[rodeodance]

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IJ30Ak04.html

Oct 30, 2007


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No end to US's war budget woes
By David Isenberg

WASHINGTON - To paraphrase an old US Army song (The Caissons Go Rolling Along), the costs of the overall US global "war on terror", including, but not limited to the Iraq war, just keep rolling along and piling up. The title "The Growing Budgetary Costs of the Iraq War" of an October 24 House Budget Committee hearing succinctly summed it up.

During a nearly three-hour hearing a trio of witnesses provided detailed testimony. Peter Orszag, director of the Congressional


Budget Office (CBO) testified that the CBO had totaled the funding provided through fiscal year 2007 for military and diplomatic operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and other activities associated with the "war on terrorism", as well as for related costs incurred by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for medical care, disability compensation, and survivors' benefits.

In addition to totaling the funding provided to date, CBO has projected the total cost over the next 10 years of funding operations in support of the "war on terrorism" under two scenarios specified by the committee chairman. .......