US IRAN WAR: The Pentagon in the US has officially requested the White House to support a budget request of more than 200 billion to be sent to Congress to finance the current war in Iran, according to a senior administration official quoted in the Washington Post.
Pentagon’s $200 Billion Funding Request
The proposal will result in a dogfight on Capitol Hill.
The demand is after three weeks of combined US-Israeli airstrikes, which have struck thousands of targets in Iran and have left American stocks of precision weapons decimated.
The funds are to finance the war expenditures and drive up the rate of the domestic defence industry to manufacture ammunition.
Lawmakers stay divided over war budget
A number of White House officials, nevertheless, already believe that the number has no realistic chance of passing through Congress.
The war bill has been increasing drastically since the start of the war. On the record of anonymity, several officials informed the Washington Post that the war cost them more than 11 billion in the first week itself.
The number has kept on increasing and it would be inevitable to make an additional funding application in case the military is to maintain its operations without undermining its overall defence forces.
The drive to assemble the funding plan has been chaired within the Pentagon by the Deputy Defence Secretary Steven Feinberg whose year-long tenure has been centred on the enhancement of the American defence industry and the manufacture of precision munitions.
US weapons drained amid conflict with Iran
Two individuals close to the issue said that the office of Feinberg prepared multiple package sizes to solve the shortage and attempt to shift the slow-moving industrial base at times.
This proposal is generally anticipated to face opposition in Congress. Support of the war amongst the people is still very shallow and democrats have been particularly critical of American intervention.
Trump Separately Eyes 1.5 Trillion
Republicans have indicated they are ready to approve a supplemental spending bill conceptually, but have not decided on a way to move through the legislative process and a bill in the Senate would require 60 votes to proceed.
The demand falls on a separate request in which President Donald Trump is seeking a new defence budget of 1.5 trillion in total, or an increase of over 50 per cent over the previous year.
