A few weeks back, the Los Angeles Times reported that Bush would ask for $50 billion more for his war. It was really $50 billion on top of $147 billion. They're covering the story again, with the actual total, but also with a new emphasis.
Here's how they open:
After smothering efforts by war critics in Congress to drastically cut U.S. troop levels in Iraq, President Bush plans to ask lawmakers next week to approve another massive spending measure -- totaling nearly $200 billion -- to fund the war through next year, Pentagon officials said.
Love the phrasing: smothering. Mister twenty-something percent smothers "war critics in Congress." We know who those war critics are. Who got smothered. By Bush.
If Bush's spending request is approved, 2008 will be the most expensive year of the Iraq war.
Because things are going so well, we have to spend even more than we've ever spent.
When costs of CIA operations and embassy expenses are added, the war in Iraq currently costs taxpayers about $12 billion a month, said Winslow T. Wheeler, a former Republican congressional budget aide who is a senior fellow at the Center for Defense Information in Washington.
There's not much more to add. This will, undoubtedly, be approved. Because this is what happens when war critics in Congress are smothered.