Bush may request 50 billion dollars for Iraq, Afghanistan in 2005

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, February 03, 2004

Bush may request 50 billion dollars for Iraq, Afghanistan in 2005

The Bush administration may ask for 50 billion US dollars for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2005, Joshua Bolten, director of the Office of Management and Budget, said Monday.

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The Bush administration may ask for 50 billion US dollars for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2005, Joshua Bolten, director of the Office of Management and Budget, said Monday.

The figure might be the upper limit, as outlays in 2004 were projected at well below 50 billion dollars for the ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, Bolten told a news briefing onthe government's proposed budget for the 2005 fiscal year.

Fifty billion dollars should be regarded "as the upper limit for what will be needed in 05" for Iraq and Afghanistan, he said.

"The needs will be less, but it will all depend entirely on thesecurity situation," Bolten said.

President George W. Bush sent to the Congress on Monday a 2.4 trillion US dollar budget for the 2005 fiscal year, with big increases for defense and homeland security.

But the budge does not allocate money for US operations in Iraqand Afghanistan, which are expected to be covered by supplemental legislation after the presidential election in November.

The budget increases defense spending by 7 percent, homeland security by nearly 10 percent, but holds the rest of discretionaryspending to half of 1 percent, less than the rate of inflation, according to Bolten.

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, more than three-quarters of the increase in the federal government's discretionary spending has been directly related to the response to the attacks, enhancedhomeland security and the war on terror, he said.

The 2005 budget continues the spending trend with significant increases in funding for security programs and a dramatic reduction in the growth of discretionary spending unrelated to security, said Bolten.

Bolten said the government projects to cut the deficit by more than half over the next five years, and the reduction will begin in the 2005 fiscal year with a projected deficit of 364 billion dollars, roughly 3 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP).

Source: Xinhua

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