Democrats eye cuts to 2008 Iraq war request

WASHINGTON – Democrats are considering cutting President Bush’s budget $142 billion request for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan next year by $20 billion, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad said Thursday.\nThe war funding cut would affect the budget year beginning Oct. 1 and is separate from the ongoing debate over Bush’s $100 billion request for immediate supplemental funding for Iraq and Afghanistan.\nThe North Dakota Democrat said he likely will use Congressional Budget Office estimates – instead of the administration’s February budget request – as the basis for estimating Iraq and Afghanistan war costs.\nThe administration asked for $141.7 billion for Fiscal 2008, but assumes only $50 billion for 2009 and no war funding after that.\nCBO issued an estimate last month that forecasts 2008 costs of $120 billion for Pentagon operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and military aid for the armies of those two countries. The estimates would drop to $75 billion in 2009 and to $40 billion in 2010.\nConrad is following a CBO scenario under which the number of troops deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan are reduced to 30,000 by 2010.\nBut over the full five-year window, Conrad said Democrats would actually provide $85 billion more in war funds than Bush requested since he assumes a continued troop presence from 2010 to 2012.\n“We are going to provide actually more funding , because we think the president’s budget has understated the war costs over the five-year period,” Conrad said.\nHe added that the congressional budget resolution he is drafting for debate later this month will provide Bush’s request for a $49 billion boost in the core Pentagon budget.\nConrad said a final decision has not been made whether to impose the $20 billion cut.\nThe annual congressional budget blueprint sets guidelines but is not binding, and the actual war budget will be set under a fiscal 2008 defense spending bill that will advance later this year.\nDeputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England told the budget panel that the administration’s $142 billion 2008 war request is the Pentagon’s best estimate but that it “could go up or down” depending on how well the war goes.\nThe nearly four-year-old war in Iraq has thus far been financed primarily through emergency spending bills, to growing criticism from lawmakers who say it should be part of the long-term budget. Last month’s Bush budget submission represented the first time the administration offered a detailed war funding request so far in advance.