$80-Billion Request for Wars Expected

The Bush administration plans to announce today that it will request about $80 billion more for this year’s costs of fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, congressional aides said Monday.

The request would push the total provided so far for those wars and for U.S. efforts against terrorism elsewhere to more than $280 billion since the first funds were provided shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks.

That would be nearly half the $613 billion the United States spent for World War I or the $623 billion it expended for the Vietnam War, when the costs of those conflicts are translated into 2005 dollars.

White House officials refused to comment on the spending package, which is being presented as the United States continues to confront violence in Iraq ahead of that country’s election, set for Sunday.

Spending on the war has exceeded initial White House estimates. Early on, then-presidential economic advisor Lawrence Lindsey placed Iraq costs at $100 billion to $200 billion.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) said Monday that it was Congress’ “highest responsibility” to provide the money American troops needed. But in a statement, she said Democrats would ask questions about President Bush’s policies.

The package will not formally be sent to Congress until after Bush introduces his 2006 budget on Feb. 7, said the aides.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office planned to release a semiannual report on the budget today. It is expected to include a projection of war costs. Last September, the report put the 10-year costs of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars at $1.4 trillion at current levels of operations, and $1 trillion if the wars were gradually phased down.