War costs irk Congress

Some say that not including costs of the war in normal budget channels prevents an open debate in Congress about tradeoffs between "guns and butter," defense spending vs. other priorities - or even tradeoffs within the defense establishment. Rep. C.W. Bill Young (R) of Florida, who chairs the House Defense subcommittee, worries that war costs are starving procurement of weapons systems, such as the DDX Destroyer and the F-22 Tactical Fighter Aircraft, which were cut by $5.3 billion in the president's FY 2007 budget.

Many Democrats plan to use the emergency spending request as a vehicle to address what they call urgent needs at home.

"I intend to use the upcoming debate on the president's supplemental appropriations request to highlight the emergencies we are confronting right here at home, and work to make progress in addressing each of them," says Sen. Patty Murray (D) of Washington, a member of both the Senate budget and appropriations committees.

In other hearings last week, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle questioned administration officials on why, despite spending more than $20 billion on rebuilding Iraq's infrastructure, services were still below prewar levels. The release of new photographs of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad fueled questions on the loss of American prestige in the world.

As members from both parties express frustration with the Iraq war's outcomes and mounting costs, a debate is intensifying within the Democratic Party on whether to back a plan to withdraw most US troops from Iraq by the end of 2007, such as the one proposed by Mr. Murtha.

"Frankly, I have not yet endorsed the Murtha proposal because I am dubious that any plan at this point could wind up with a good ending," said Rep. David Obey (D) of Wisconsin, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations committee. "But I have to say that I am persuaded that setting a timetable, even if it's a flexible one ... is likely to remove one of the main arguments that the insurgents try to use ... that we're going to be there forever."

Meanwhile, Republicans are grappling with the soaring costs of a war with no firm ending point at the same time that they are gearing up to defend their control of the House and Senate in midterm elections.

"There is a dilemma within the Democratic Party: The base is overwhelmingly against the war, but leadership realizes it would be very dangerous for the party to be viewed as committed to anything but success in Iraq," says Marshall Wittmann, a former conservative activist now with the Democratic Leadership Council.

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