President Bush will seek $419.3 billion for the Defense Department in the fiscal year that begins this October, a 4.8 percent increase over this year's spending, not counting the cost of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a Defense Department document obtained by The Washington Post. The fiscal 2006 request, $19.2 billion above the Pentagon's $400.1 billion budget for this year, does not include any money for Iraq and Afghanistan. Bush requested no war funding in the 2005 budget either, but he ultimately asked Congress for $105 billion in emergency spending to meet the needs of the wars. Of that 2005 money, an $80 billion request is pending before Congress. The 2006 request envisions defense spending growing gradually to $502.3 billion by 2011. [more]
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