Obama's $83-billion war bill: Era ending?

by Mark Silva

Looking at President Barack Obama's request for an additional $83.4 billion for the wars, diplomacy and intelligence this year, it's not only the supplemental spending he is seeking that might raise eyebrows among those in Congress who condemned the Bush administration for its perpetual supplemental war budgets, but the way he's asking for it.

"The era of irresponsibility is ending,'' Obama's Office of Management and Budget declared somewhat didacticly, with the supplemental budget for 2009 that it submitted to Congress this week. "We are up front about the costs we will bear as a nation, and will use our resources wisely to defeat our biggest threats and to find the best diplomatic as well as military strategies to keep our nation safe and secure.''

Which is pretty much what the Bush administration said with its repeated supplementary war spending plans. Now, Obama says this will be the last of these, and indeed he has assumed office just months into the 2009 budget year, and he has advanced a fullblown $3.55-trillion budget for 2010 that includes the wars, so paying for the months ahead is another challenge that he has "inherited,'' perhaps.

The Bush adminitration's "supplementals'' always were criticized by Democrats as a subterfuge, a means of cooking the budgetary books by sending up federal budgets to Congress each year that reflected neither the true costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan nor the budget deficits that they were helping drive higher.

Indeed, the final budget that Bush submitted for 2009 obscured the fact that it would yield a record budget deficit of close to $500 billion this year once the "supplemental'' costs of the wars were added later.

Now that the true deficit for 2009 has been pegged at $1.75 trillion in the wake of Bush bailouts and Obama stimulus spending that bridged the transition from Presidents Bush to Obama, the Obama administration insists that this is the last of the "supplementals.''

"This is the last planned war supplemental,'' Obama's OMB reported Thursday. "Moving forward, the president is committed to honest budgeting and fiscal discipline in which these costs are accounted for in the budget -- and are clear for all to see. After seven years of war, the American people deserve an honest accounting of the cost of our involvement in our ongoing military operations.''

The Obama White House also has announced that it will forbid something else which the Bush administration fought to avert with its supplementals: Hitchhikers.

"While this is the last planned war supplemental, the president will not tolerate it being turned into a vehicle for political projects,'' Obama's OMB says. "He has made it very clear to Congress that he will not accept any earmarks in the bill -- and he will not tolerate the bill being loaded up with unrelated items.''

Bush had to swallow some add-ons to his supplementals, though he vetoed them when the Democrats attempted to add a timeframe for U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq to the bills.

Like the August 2010 timeframe which Obama has now promised - meeting it, the White House says, is the overwhelming reason for the supplemental budget.

"An overwhelming amount of this money -- nearly 95 percent -- is to move forward with the president's agenda of ending the war in Iraq responsibly and his new strategy of refocusing the fight against al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan,'' OMB says. "The remaining money funds defense and international efforts that reflect the president's direction that we use all the elements of our power to confront threats to our security -- from securing loose nukes to humanitarian relief for those suffering under repressive regimes.''

Now that the "era of irresponsibility " is ending, this is what the promised last of the supplementals is seeking:

DOD and Intelligence Community Activities in Support of Operations in Iraq and Afghanistan ($75.5 billion)

Ongoing Military Operations:

• $38.0 billion to fund the incremental costs of ongoing military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan during Fiscal Year 2009. This includes the cost of combat and stabilization operations, pre-deployment training, inter- and intra-theater transportation, aircraft flying hours, ship steaming days, and vehicle miles at a wartime operational tempo.
• $5.6 billion for a range of other items including medical benefits and support programs for the military, new military construction in theater, and intelligence activities supporting ongoing contingency operations.
• $0.5 billion in additional funds to continue the Commander's Emergency Response Program, which enables U.S. military commanders to respond to urgent, humanitarian relief and reconstruction needs in their areas of responsibility.

Equipment and Force Structure:

• $11.6 billion to refurbish or replace equipment that is worn out or damaged from operating in harsh conditions in Iraq and Afghanistan, including $0.6 billion to procure four F-22 Raptor fighter aircraft to replace four fighter aircraft lost in the theater of operations.
• $9.8 billion to improve the protection of our forces with lightweight body armor, armored vehicles, safe and secure operating bases, identity management for access control, and persistent surveillance capabilities.
• $1.5 billion to confront the evolving threat from Improvised Explosive Devices.

Support for Coalition Partners:

• $3.6 billion to expand and improve capabilities of the Afghan security forces.
• $1.4 billion to support Coalition partners who have provided assistance to U.S. military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.
• $0.4 billion to build the counterinsurgency capabilities of the Pakistani security forces.

Intelligence Operations:

• $3.1 billion for classified activities in support of ongoing counterterrorism operations. These activities include support to military operations, intelligence collection and analysis, and overseas law enforcement efforts.

Cancellation of Emergency Funds and Re-Appropriation to Extend Availability:

• FY 2009 emergency funds provided in the Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2008, for the Iraq Security Forces Fund ($1.0 billion) and the Afghanistan Security Forces Fund ($0.1 billion) are proposed for cancellation and reappropriation in order to extend the period of availability until September 30, 2010.

Other Defense Activities ($350 million)

• $3.7 billion in defense costs for other security related Defense activities, most of which is offset by $2.9 billion in fuel savings and $0.5 billion in procurement reductions.

International Affairs and Stabilization Activities ($7.1 billion)

The request seeks funding for key international affairs programs as follows:
• $3.7 billion for foreign assistance and operations in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq, of which:

o $1.6 billion is for increased economic assistance for Afghanistan, and to support additional civilian personnel, and diplomatic operations;
o $1.4 billion is for economic assistance for Pakistan, and to support additional civilian personnel, more secure infrastructure, and diplomatic operations; and
o $0.7 billion is for assistance for Iraq and related diplomatic operations.

• $0.8 billion to support the Palestinian people, strengthen the Palestinian Authority, and provide humanitarian assistance for the crisis in Gaza.
• $0.8 billion to sustain current United Nations (UN) peacekeeping operations, fund an expanded mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and a new mission in Chad and the Central African Republic. A portion of these funds may be used to pay UN assessments attributable to a logistics and support package for the African Union Mission to Somalia called for by the UN Security Council.

The proposal also includes:

• $0.6 billion in humanitarian assistance (excluding Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and West Bank / Gaza) to respond to international disasters, provide refugee and migration assistance, and deliver emergency food aid;
• $0.5 billion for other priorities such as economic and development assistance for the people of Kenya, Zimbabwe, and Burma; security assistance for Lebanon; funding for heavy fuel oil assistance and to support nuclear dismantlement in North Korea; counterdrug/anti-crime assistance for Mexico;
• $0.4 billion to address the impact of the global financial crisis in developing countries, including additional support for vulnerable populations through social safety net programs, targeted technical assistance to strengthen crisis response, and loans and loan guarantees for small and medium enterprises; and
• $0.2 billion to fulfill the United States' commitment to assistance for Georgia.

Other Security and Urgent Needs ($390.0 million)

• $89.5 million for the Department of Energy (DOE), National Nuclear Security Administration to safeguard nuclear material in Russia and other sites world-wide and to continue disablement and dismantlement of North Korea's plutonium program. DOE is also requesting to transfer unobligated balances from the SPR Petroleum Account to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve account to fund immediate cleanup and the highest priority safety and security hazards.
• $47.0 million for the Department of Justice, of which:

o $30.0 million is to implement executive orders for the shut down of the Guantanamo Bay prison and review of the U.S. detention and interrogation procedures;
o $5.0 million is for U.S. Attorneys for extraordinary litigation expenses associated with terrorism prosecutions of national importance;
o $5.0 million is for the Federal Prison System to support counter-terrorism activities;
o $4.0 million is to support the work of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives personnel assigned to the Combined Explosives Exploitation Cell and the U.S. Embassy in Iraq;
o $1.6 million is for the Criminal Division to provide training and assistance for the Iraq and Afghanistan criminal justice systems; and
o $1.4 million is for the National Security Division to continue supporting Military Commission prosecutions.

• $2.9 million for the Executive Office of the President, National Security Council in order to meet additional program requirements and to ensure the continuity of support and services to the President of the United States and the National Security Advisor
• $250.0 million in total for the Forest Service ($200 million) and Department of the Interior ($50 million) for wildland fire suppression and emergency rehabilitation of burned areas. Funds would be available if existing appropriations will be imminently exhausted.