Military-industrial complex - big wins in Bush budget

afp/yahoo: President George W. Bush submitted a 439.3 billion dollar defense budget to Congress, seeking a seven percent boost in military spending without taking into account the full cost of a protracted war in Iraq.

The White House said the proposed 2007 defense budget includes increased funding for more Predator surveillance drones, special operations forces and investments in nuclear systems upgrades and enhanced missile defenses.

Weapons procurement spending will go up to 84.2 billion dollars, an eight percent hike over 2006, and to 73.2 billion dollars for weapons research and development, a slight increase, it said.

The White House is asking for an additional 50 billion dollars as a down payment for the military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2007, but shields the annual defense budget from the full fiscal impact of the war on terror.

The remaining cost of the military operations, as well as the training and equipping of Iraqi security forces, will be funded through an emergency request later in the year outside the annual defense budget, the White House said.

It estimates total defense outlays in 2007 at more than 504 billion dollars with estimated additional war costs of 50 billion dollars included. Read more

Military-Industrial Complex Speech, Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961