Bronco_Beerslug
09-22-2004, 02:52 PM
You guys are going to have to ante up to keep this going. The emergency fund only has 25 billion in it.
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By John Hendren Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON — A relentless insurgency in Iraq (news - web sites) has prompted the Pentagon (news - web sites) to begin spending money from a $25-billion emergency fund that Bush administration officials had once said would not be needed this fiscal year, officials said Tuesday.
Unable to tap into regular 2005 funding until the Oct. 1 start of the new fiscal year, the Pentagon has already spent more than $2 billion from the emergency fund.
President Bush (news - web sites) requested the emergency funds from Congress in May to pay for a war that is longer and more violent than he and his Pentagon strategists had predicted. The money will help pay for equipment for troops heading to Iraq this fall.
The need to dip into the fund, which also covers the war in Afghanistan (news - web sites), highlights the intensity of an Iraqi insurgency that has virtually wrested control of several cities — most notably the western Sunni Triangle hotbed of Fallouja and the northern city of Samarra — from 135,000 American troops and allied forces still operating in Iraq.
"It shows the pace of operations is far greater than anticipated," said Stanley E. Collender, a former House and Senate budget analyst and now general manager of Financial Dynamics, a business communications firm in Washington.
"The cost is much greater than expected. All of the early estimates were based on the idea that we'd get in and out quickly, and that hasn't happened."
Although Army and Marine officials warned Congress in February of a looming funding shortfall, administration officials at that time said they would not need additional money for Iraq and Afghanistan this year.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/latimests/20040922/ts_latimes/cashstrappedpentagontapsemergencyfund&e=4
----------------------------------------
By John Hendren Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON — A relentless insurgency in Iraq (news - web sites) has prompted the Pentagon (news - web sites) to begin spending money from a $25-billion emergency fund that Bush administration officials had once said would not be needed this fiscal year, officials said Tuesday.
Unable to tap into regular 2005 funding until the Oct. 1 start of the new fiscal year, the Pentagon has already spent more than $2 billion from the emergency fund.
President Bush (news - web sites) requested the emergency funds from Congress in May to pay for a war that is longer and more violent than he and his Pentagon strategists had predicted. The money will help pay for equipment for troops heading to Iraq this fall.
The need to dip into the fund, which also covers the war in Afghanistan (news - web sites), highlights the intensity of an Iraqi insurgency that has virtually wrested control of several cities — most notably the western Sunni Triangle hotbed of Fallouja and the northern city of Samarra — from 135,000 American troops and allied forces still operating in Iraq.
"It shows the pace of operations is far greater than anticipated," said Stanley E. Collender, a former House and Senate budget analyst and now general manager of Financial Dynamics, a business communications firm in Washington.
"The cost is much greater than expected. All of the early estimates were based on the idea that we'd get in and out quickly, and that hasn't happened."
Although Army and Marine officials warned Congress in February of a looming funding shortfall, administration officials at that time said they would not need additional money for Iraq and Afghanistan this year.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/latimests/20040922/ts_latimes/cashstrappedpentagontapsemergencyfund&e=4