Okay, so exactly how much supplemental funding has Bush requested

[whistle]

...to keep his wars going in Iraq and Afghanistan? I understood that he requested $198 billion in early September, that was this month and then on Tuesday September 25th Secretary Robert Gates came before the Senate and asked for an additional $42 billion in supplemental funding for a total as I add it up to $240 billion in off the books funding which we know is already spent or most certainly committed.

So by the beginning of Congress session in January 2008, these fat militaristic piranha with an unquenchable appetite for greed and corruption will be back to the feeding trough asking for hundreds of billions of more dollars. :wtf:

We all know that only a small fraction of this funding will go to helping the troops. Most will end up in the pockets of private army contractors, corrupt Iraqi officials and even top U.S. military brass. There is no end to this unless Congress chooses to end it

[babylonsister]

1. I thought the total asked for was $190 billion... nt

[Kagemusha]

2. What I read - and I emphasize, what I read in media reports...

is that the 42 billion is not additional, it is part of the 198 billion request, making the remaining request 156 billion. If I hadn't seen it in print in that fashion I would very much have assumed it to mean what you say it means.

But since I'm just saying what I read in reports, don't take that as absolute guarantees.

[whistle]

5. Yes, that is where I am confused also and I certainly don't trust BushCo

...to say what they mean or mean what they say :grr:

[never_get_over_it]

3. I Heard someone add it all up since the beginning

on a progressive radio show but I honestly can't remember who it was but total since the beginning is over 700 BILLION - and I read a statement of Representative Jim Moran D VA 8th district and he said 800 BILLION since the beginning that is over 3 BILLION a week

[rurallib]

4. I add it up to $240B also.

BTW is money spent in Iraq counted against the yearly deficit? I think at one time it wasn't.
I also heard yesterday that the deficit is reported much loiwer than it actually is because Bushco spends the SSI receipts as they come in. LAst year @ $300 Billion or so. So the actual deficit last year was @$600 Billion.
So our SS is going to fund the rich boys tax cuts.

[whistle]

6. That is the way it appears to me and that is why I've asked for a reality check

...here on DU. As far as I'm concerned Bush is low balling the numbers and keeps sending back requests every month or two like some junky needing a fix and just can't ever get enough.

[Rage for Order]

7. You need to get your facts straight

The Iraq War will only end up costing, at most, $60 billion dollars. I don't know where you're getting your numbers from, but mine came straight from the source: :sarcasm: (in case it's not obvious)

http://www.iraqfoundation.org/news/2003/ajan/2_whitehouse.html

White House Cuts Estimate of Cost of War With Iraq
January 2, 2003

The administration's top budget official (Mitchell E. Daniels Jr., director of the Office of Management and Budget) estimated today that the cost of a war with Iraq could be in the range of $50 billion to $60 billion, a figure that is well below earlier estimates from White House officials.

Mr. Daniels would not provide specific costs for either a long or a short military campaign against Saddam Hussein. But he said that the administration was budgeting for both, and that earlier estimates of $100 billion to $200 billion in Iraq war costs by Lawrence B. Lindsey, Mr. Bush's former chief economic adviser, were too high.

Mr. Daniels cautioned that his budget projections did not mean a war with Iraq was imminent, and that it was impossible to know what any military campaign against Iraq would ultimately cost. This is nothing more than prudent contingency planning," Mr. Daniels said from his home in Indianapolis, where he was reviewing the fiscal 2004 budget at his kitchen table. "At this point there is no war."

The budget director's projections today served as a more politically palatable corrective to figures put forth by Mr. Lindsey in September, when he said that a war with Iraq might amount to 1 percent to 2 percent of the national gross domestic product, or $100 billion to $200 billion. Mr. Lindsey added that as a one-time cost for one year, the expenditure would be "nothing."

Mr. Lindsey was criticized inside and outside the administration for putting forth such a large number, which helped pave the way for his ouster earlier this month. He could not be reached for comment this evening. (Congressional Democrats have estimated that the cost would be $93 billion, not including the cost of peacekeeping and rebuilding efforts after a war.)

But today, Mr. Daniels sought to play down his former colleague's remarks. "That wasn't a budget estimate," he said. "It was more of a historical benchmark than any analysis of what a conflict today might entail."

[whistle]

8. That was then --January 2003, and this is now --September 2007

...$480 billion so far spent and gone, wasted for nothing, nada!

Bush requests #198 billion supplemental funds to be added ASAP for immediate spending at the end of August 2007

"Robber" Gates appears before the Congressional committee last Wednesday September 26, 2007 and explained that more was needed, as much as $50 billion in additional supplemental funds to protect the troops with bomb proof Humvees.....SOooooo....

My calculations stand and actually must be modified to be $728 billion by years end, spent, sunk, gone, wasted and in January Boosh and his cronies WILL BE BACK ASKING FOR MORE beyond the $280 billion already in FY 2008 Budget for the wars on top of the $500 billion regular military budget for next year. And, it is all being financed with debt!

[Rage for Order]

9. I know, I was being facetious

I think you realized that, but I'm not certain. Isn't it amazing how the war has gone from being paid for by Iraqi oil at virtually no cost to the US, to costing $100-$200, then no - that's too much, at most $50-$60 billion, to now roughly $700 billion and counting?