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$100B war cost based on status quo

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Bush administration's projected cost of more than $100 billion per year for the war in Iraq assumes that operations "will continue pretty much as they are" over the next two years, the White House's budget chief has said.

"We, of course, hope that that's not the case," Budget Director Rob Portman said Sunday. He said administration officials believe President George W. Bush's plan to halt the spread of sectarian warfare with another 21,500 American combat troops will begin to bring costs down.

Portman said the cost of that new deployment is included in the $100 billion in new spending Bush will seek Monday from Congress to pay this year's tab for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

About 90 percent of that money would go to pay for the war in Iraq, now nearly four years old, he told CNN's "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer."

"By increasing our military presence in Iraq through the so-called surge, putting additional brigades in place, we are hoping that we will begin to quell some of this sectarian violence," Portman said.

The $100 billion is in addition to the $70 billion Congress approved for war spending in 2006.

In addition, Bush will seek about $145 billion for the 2008 fiscal year, which begins in October, when he presents his budget to Congress -- the first time Bush has included war costs in the regular budget.

And the projected costs for 2009, the last year for which the administration has produced an estimate, run about $50 billion.

Before now, the administration has used supplemental funding requests for most of the roughly $400 billion spent in Iraq, a practice that many in Congress say understates the war's impact on the Treasury.

"We've really dishonestly funded this war," said Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., an increasingly outspoken opponent of Bush's handling of the conflict.

Portman said the president's budget will show lawmakers "a lot of detail" about where the money will go, "and we're also going to do it in a way where Congress has the opportunity to have its oversight responsibilities discharged."

Along with paying for additional troops, Bush has said he will increase support for reconstruction efforts in Iraq. Lawmakers have authorized more than $30 billion in reconstruction funds so far, but the effort has been plagued by numerous reports of waste and fraud.

"I think some corrections have been made to avoid this going into the future," Portman said. "There was a report recently by the special inspector general in Iraq about some of that waste over the last several years, but we believe we have the controls in place now to do a better job going forward."

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