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Obama DOD Budget is $534 billion; War Supplement is $75.5 Billion

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February 25, 2009 6:22 PM

MartinezABC News' Luis Martinez reports: A Defense official confirms that the "topline" budget number for the Pentagon to be released tomorrow by the Office of Management and Budget will be about $534 billion. The full budget details will be provided in April. Last year, Congress appropriated $513 billion for the Defense Department's budget.

The Obama administration has expressed a desire to go away from the Bush administration's use of supplemental emergency bills to pay for the ongoing costs of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Despite that, there will be two additional war supplemental requests released by the OMB tomorrow.  One of them will be to contine funding the costs of the wars for the second half of fiscal year 2009, Congress had already appropriated $65.9 billion for the first half of fiscal year 2009. The Defense official confirms that the second half of the fiscal year 2009 request will be for $75.5 billion.  That would bring the total war spending costs for fiscal year 2009 to $141.4 billion.

In a letter to Congress on Dec. 31, Defense Secretary Robert Gates estimated that this request might be $69.7 billion. That estimate did not take into account the addition of troops into Afghanistan. Last week, President Obama announced he would send an additional 17,000 troops to Afghanistan to boost the current force of 38,000 troops currently in Afghanistan.

The official confirms that OMB will also requst another supplemental bill to fund the ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan for fiscal year 2010 which begins on October 1. That proposed request will be for $130 billion.

February 25, 2009 | Permalink | User Comments (15)

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More spending and promises. Just what we need now!

Posted by: Andy | Feb 25, 2009 10:44:25 PM

Hey! This sounds familiar!

Posted by: Betrayed | Feb 25, 2009 11:30:44 PM

Well, so much for idiot Limbaugh who was screaming a few days ago that President Obama was cutting funding for defense. Now the right wing moron's will have to try to pick something else to lie about tomorrow.

Posted by: devilkev | Feb 26, 2009 12:54:35 AM


Just where is all the money coming from to sustain Obama's promises and plans?

More foreign debt? Now approaching 2 trillion dollars.

Like so many politicians that borrow to pay today's
debts and leave the problem of repayment to their
successors, i.e., the U.S. taxpayer,
Obama seems to be falling into that trap.

Obama has the opportunity to become a great president,
yet, I foresee the U.S. becoming more indebted to foreign
nations to fulfill all the promises he has made.

Posted by: rr | Feb 26, 2009 6:07:44 AM

Any money in there to continue the F22 Raptor program and SAVE 95,000 American Jobs?????

Posted by: Mike_C | Feb 26, 2009 3:49:08 PM

Wouldn't it be interesting to see how much money has been spent in the effort of catching Bin Laden?

Posted by: mmonroeliveson | Feb 26, 2009 5:22:08 PM

what did it cost to fly airforce 1 to chicago and denver to sign those bills that could have been signed in washington.

Posted by: john | Feb 26, 2009 10:08:56 PM

I would rather have spending on national defense than on wasteful department and programs. Remember this: Bush is spending us into a big deficit. Funny when it is Obama doing the same no one makes that argument. **Crickets*** Anyone there?

Posted by: Constitutionalist | Feb 26, 2009 10:38:39 PM

The Raptor is the machine the US needs...we build these stealthy ultra-modern aircraft for future, unknown combatants...not the stone-age rag-tag bunch we are fighting now. It takes years for these F22's to be designed, researched and tested before being combat worthy. Do we want to throw that all away to pay for Obama's whacked out socialist agenda...no way. The F-35 JSF is next so watch out.

Posted by: Jeff | Feb 27, 2009 12:08:45 AM

Money isn't everything. Now it's not even enough.They say it brings only misery. With money, though, you can afford it.

Posted by: Silver | Feb 27, 2009 9:17:32 AM

Now the right wing moron's will have to try to pick something else to lie about tomorrow.
-----------------------------------
devilkev,


Do you mean lying like Obama? He is not going to raise taxes on those 95% of working Americans, "not one dime"...Right?

HE LIED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He has already raised taxes on every American who smokes cigarettes, regardless of income!

It really sucks when you have no idea what your really doing one day to the next, except trying to spend more money than actually exists on the entire planet!

He has

Posted by: Mike_C | Feb 27, 2009 9:29:08 AM

I would rather have spending on national defense than on wasteful department and programs. Remember this: Bush is spending us into a big deficit. Funny when it is Obama doing the same no one makes that argument. **Crickets*** Anyone there?
-----------------------------------
Constitution,

LOL...The only "crickets" out there are those around every American home as people begin to realize what this nut case is really doing!

By the way, your logic is wonderful.
The previous guy was terrible, horrible, messed up everything. So now lets do what he did, but on a scale to dwarf it!!!!

Yeah, that's the right approach!


Thanks to Obama, programs and projects that cost 10's of billions of dollars are now considered pocket change. They will now be the ones that Chuckie Schumer so incorrectly claims we dont care about!

We have a "stimulator" bill that he CLAIMS will "create/save" 3.5 million jobs! Sounds great doesn't it?

Only a little problem....There is no way to mechanism to record a "saved" job. The only possible definiton and method of reporting them would be to have every business in the country publically report all the lay off the are considering. Then when they do not layoff a particular person, their job is considered "saved".

Now, can anyone in the listening audience understand why that would completely cripple the entire economy?

It's not difficult !

Posted by: Mike_C | Feb 27, 2009 9:39:49 AM

Wow! They can buy a heck of a lot of M-16s and howitzers with that!

Yeah, right.

I think we (non Kool-Aid drinkers that is) should have learned with the Annenberg Challenge. The Chosen One and Ayers doled out millions to 'education'. To the casual observer it sounds like kids got books and pencils and computers to learn with. Actually, it went to Leftist political groups.

The question now is, how much of this defense budget will go towards building some kind of Civilian Defense Force and an array of programs that have nothing to do with the U.S. military? It's a game of hiding money under a different umbrella that we should be cognizant of by now.

Posted by: RR GOP | Feb 28, 2009 10:20:10 AM

waste time and do nothing

Posted by: smoppc | Mar 3, 2009 2:27:45 PM

Obama is doing the right thing. Right now, he is trying to spend more to stabalize the country so that we can pull out quicker. He is trying to put an end to a war that he didn't start. When he was a senator, he was very open about his opposition to the war. He says he needs to money, and with 150,000 U.S tropps in Iraq, he most likely does. Do you really think that the troops can effectively do their job without it? Have you ever tried to run a business without spending the money needed to run it? Yes, it sucks he has to spend more, but what if he didn't spend it at all? Should we just leave Iraq? That way all of the hatred that breeds in that god forsaken country can thrive and grow and continue to force innocent people to hide from their own lives. If you are not going to stand behind the troops and support the money that supports them, then I suggest going and standing in front of them.

Posted by: MIke | Apr 12, 2009 8:38:10 PM

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