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Thursday, January 04, 2007
Budgeting the War, Pt. II: It's STILL an Emergency!
Yesterday in this space, we asked:
[A]s we await the President's submission of another emergency supplemental war funding request... will President Bush comply with or ignore ... the Defense Authorization Act of 2007, for fiscal year 2007 (PL 109-364), [in which] Congress directed that [the President's] budget for fiscal year 2008 include full funding of the costs of ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan?
We didn't have long to wait to find out.
Although he signed the law, is bound by the Constitution to execute it faithfully, and was recently reminded by Congressional budget chiefs of his obligation, President Bush evidently isn't so hot on it.
As reported today in BNA ($), "Bush will continue to seek war funds outside the regular budget process."
Says conservative House Budget Committee ranking member Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), "To the extent they can predict war costs, they should include them in the budget."
Posted by Dana Chasin
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