[[B U D G E T S]] * Following up on yesterday’s news that the Bush administration will soon be holding out its hat out again to Congress, this time asking for an additional $70 billion to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, The Seattle Times explains today thatMost of the new money would go to the war in Iraq, which already has cost an estimated $250 billion since the U.S. invasion in March 2003. The additional spending, along with other war funds the Bush administration will seek separately in its regular budget next week, would push the price tag for combat and nation-building since Sept. 11, 2001, to nearly half a trillion dollars--approaching the cost of the 13-year-long Vietnam War.Breaking down those whopping numbers, the Times says that the U.S. Defense Department currently spends “about $4.5 billion a month on the conflict in Iraq, or about $100,000 per minute.” Imagine all the ways $100,000 a minute could be spent to improve conditions in the United States, rather than flushing it down a money pit in the Middle East.
READ MORE: “Bush Budget to Wring Savings From Medicare” (CBS News); “Bush’s Out of Control Budgets” (Daily Kos).
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