White House: 'Surge' money already in budget, 'we're going to proceed'

The White House yesterday said there already is enough money in the budget to pay for President Bush's proposed troop surge in Iraq, leaving Congress almost no viable way to stop him before he commits the troops.

Some members of Congress had proposed using the power of the purse to cut off funds for the new troops, but White House press secretary Tony Snow said there's already enough money in the pipeline to begin the deployment of more than 17,000 soldiers to Baghdad to quell Sunni-Shi'ite violence and another 4,000 Marines to Anbar province to go after al Qaeda fighters.

"Funding for the forces and to dispatch them to the region, it's already in the budget. So we're going to proceed with those plans," Mr. Snow said.

Read the rest at the Washington Times

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