WASHINGTON, Feb. 5 (UPI) -- The cost of wars and national defense are rising for the United States.
The Bush administration announced Monday that it was asking the U.S. Congress to approve a budget of $623.1 billion for Fiscal Year 2008, an increase of $27.3 billion on the $595.8 billion defense appropriations for FY 2007.
The Defense Department said Monday $141.7 billion for what it described as emergencies: That category includes the Global War on Terror and operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
An additional $93.4 billion, separate from regular budget funding, was requested as an emergency supplemental to cover the military's operating costs in Iraq and Afghanistan for the remainder of FY 2007.
Those figures did not include a separate $36.4 billion request for the operations of the Department of Homeland Security, which is separate from the DOD. When the $38.3 billion for international affairs and the $84.4 billion for the Department of Veterans Affairs is added, the total "defense" budget comes to more than $800 billion, according to Winslow Wheeler, head of the Strauss Project for Military Reform at the Center for Defense Information, a Washington think tank.
The Democratic-controlled 110th Congress is expected to approve most of the request, but not without asking some politically charged questions first.
Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill have made clear they do not want to run the risk of being accused of withholding essential funding from U.S. combat forces while the war in Iraq still rages, especially as most congressional Democrats, including party leaders, strongly support the Bush administration in preventing Iran acquiring nuclear weapons.
The basic budget request for the so-called "peacetime" DOD -- regular Department of Defense operations not counting the costs of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan -- is $481.4 billion, an 11.3 percent increase over the request for FY 2007.
The basic budget figure includes funding to increase the overall troop strength level of the Army and Marines in FY 2008 by 7,000 and 5,000 respectively. The size increases are planned annually until 2012, when a total of 92,000 additional troops would have been added to overall strength levels.
"These increases in Army and Marine Corps permanent end strength will improve the nation's security and ensure a ready and available war-fighting force," the Pentagon said in a news release. "The increase will also provide longer periods of time at home station for military personnel and their families."
The budget request includes:
-- Combat Operations: $70.6 billion to sustain war fighting operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, including supplies, support and maintenance of equipment.
-- IEDs: $15.2 billion for force protection and defeating improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, that account for most U.S. casualties in Iraq. This figure includes $4 billion for developing and deploying measures to defeat IEDs.
-- Local Forces: In the effort to speed handing over security responsibility to local forces, the FY 2008 request includes $2 billion to train and equip Iraqi security forces and to help them achieve self-reliance. Another $2.7 billion is asked for Afghan security forces.
-- Coalition Forces: The Defense Department asks $1.7 billion to help coalition allies and their military commanders on the ground to carry out their missions.
The above breakdown and figures do not include the $93.4 billion requested to cover the costs of the war on terror for the remaining period of FY 2007. Congress had previously provided $70 billion for war costs in 2007. The Defense Department budget request for fiscal 2008 totals $623.1 billion, broken down into the base budget and war on terror funding requests.
The DOD base budget request includes:
-- Increasing Army and Marine numbers: $12.1 billion to add a total of 12,000 soldiers and Marines to permanent end strength levels in FY 2008. Overall ground troop strength will be increased annually until 2012.
-- Future Army Combat System: $3.7 billion. Major investment areas include unmanned aerial vehicles, manned and unmanned ground vehicles, battlefield command and control systems.
-- Joint Maritime Capabilities: 14.4 billion, a $3.2 billion increase over FY 2007. This figure includes money for one new aircraft carrier, one new submarine, one amphibious assault ship, three littoral combat vessels and the continued building of two new destroyers.
