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President Bush's budget for next year, sent to the Congress for debate on Monday, includes more than half a trillion dollars in basic defense spending, and another $70 billion to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and related operations, for about half of the year. VOA's Al Pessin reports from the Pentagon.
Under the president's plan, the Defense Department's budget increases about 5.5 percent, adjusted for inflation, compared to the current year. Defense Secretary Robert Gates offered a brief justification for the budget on Monday.
"The budget request provides the resources needed to prevail in current conflicts, while preparing the department for a range of challenges that our nation may face in the years ahead," said Robert Gates.....
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For 2007, the budget rose to US$439.3 billion.[1] This does not include many military-related items that are outside of the Defense Department budget, such as nuclear weapons research, maintenance and production (~$9.3 billion, which is in the Department of Energy budget), Veterans Affairs(~$33.2 billion) or the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (which are largely funded through extra-budgetary supplements, ~$170 billion in 2007).[2] Conversely, the military budget does allocate money for dual-use items, such as the development of infrastructure surrounding U.S. military bases. Altogether, military-related expenses totaled approximately $626.1 billion
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