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WASHINGTON, May 6, 2007 – Congress needs to provide the military with the funds and flexibility it needs to prevail to succeed in Iraq, President Bush said in his weekly radio address yesterday. Bush vetoed a supplemental war-funding bill May 1 because it contained deadlines for troop withdrawal and domestic spending unrelated to the war. A subsequent House vote to override the veto failed. Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the coalition’s commander in Iraq, is still in the early stages of implementing a new strategy to help Iraq secure its capital so the Iraqi people can build a free...

WASHINGTON, May 6, 2007 – Congress needs to provide the military with the funds and flexibility it needs to prevail to succeed in Iraq, President Bush said in his weekly radio address yesterday. Bush vetoed a supplemental war-funding bill May 1 because it contained deadlines for troop withdrawal and domestic spending unrelated to the war. A subsequent House vote to override the veto failed. Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the coalition’s commander in Iraq, is still in the early stages of implementing a new strategy to help Iraq secure its capital so the Iraqi people can build a free...

WASHINGTON, April 10, 2007 – President Bush today reiterated his call for Congress to pass an Iraq war supplemental appropriations bill and called for a meeting with congressional leaders from both parties to move the process ahead. Speaking to American Legion Post 177 in Fairfax, Va., the president called for a session next week to work toward a bill that’s not bogged down with pork-barrel projects and “arbitrary deadlines” for a withdrawal from Iraq. “We can discuss the way forward on … a clean bill … that funds our troops without artificial timetables for withdrawal and without handcuffing our...

WASHINGTON, March 17, 2007 – It is vital Congress pass an emergency war spending bill as soon as possible and without strings attached, President Bush said during his weekly radio address today. “In times of war, Congress has no greater obligation than funding our warfighters,” Bush said. “The purpose of this legislation should be to give our troops on the front lines the resources, funds and equipment they need to fight our enemies. Bush submitted a defense budget request Feb. 5 that includes a $93.4 billion emergency supplemental measure to cover the cost of operations in the war on...

The real cost to the US of the Iraq war is likely to be between $1 trillion and $2 trillion (£1.1 trillion), up to 10 times more than previously thought, according to a report written by a Nobel prize-winning economist and a Harvard budget expert. The study, which expanded on traditional estimates by including such costs as lifetime disability and healthcare for troops injured in the conflict as well as the impact on the American economy, concluded that the US government is continuing to underestimate the cost of the war. The report came during one of the most deadly periods...

Most bills are introduced in Congress with at least a glimmer of a hope that they'll become law. Others are intended simply to make a statement. Congressman Peter DeFazio's "American Parity Act" is a fiendishly ingenious example of the latter. Co-sponsored by the Oregon Democrat and Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., the bill would require the federal government to match every dollar spent on Iraqi infrastructure with a dollar for improvements in health care, education and infrastructure here in the United States. The bill has a slim chance of passage in the Republican-controlled House, although it has picked up the support of...