$50 Billion More For War

$50 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan for the first few months of next year, under a House bill a subcommittee approved Wednesday.

On a voice vote, the House defense appropriations subcommittee passed a $427 billion measure for the Pentagon budget year that begins Oct. 1, including operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Senate has not yet completed its version of the annual bill. House lawmakers sliced about $4 billion from the president's spending request for the Pentagon because of what they said were other priorities within the budget and a soaring federal deficit.

"We did the best we could with the money we had to work with," said Rep. John Murtha.

If approved, the House bill would push total war-related dollars since 2001 toward a staggering half-trillion dollars.

Lawmakers say the Pentagon is spending about $8 billion a month in Iraq and $1 billion a month in Afghanistan.

!*^!@#%%&!! and !@#^$#!