President Bush is preparing to ask Congress for about US$80 billion to fund the war in Iraq, ending months of dogged refusal to give an estimate of the cost of the conflict.
The timing is likely to attract strong criticism. Democrats have accused the administration of deliberately withholding the figure until Bush's crowd-pleasing package of tax cuts was safe. Congress approved the bulk of the package at the end of last week.
The sum includes about US$60 billion for combat and the first few months of reconstruction, the rest covering foreign aid, homeland security and humanitarian relief. Unlike the 1991 Gulf War, the US is shouldering most of the cost alone. A single cruise missile can cost up to US$1 million.
The administration was reported Sunday to be still discussing last-minute changes to the budget request. The figure has ranged from US$70 billion to US$90 billion, and the package could be broken into smaller, more digestible chunks.
As of yesterday, the president had yet to sign the request.
Democrats have expressed frustration at the delay. The Senate minority leader, Tom Daschle, said last week that it was "preposterous" to debate next year's budget when "this big question mark hangs out there, totally unaddressed".
Some have suggested that if the White House had been more forthcoming it would have complicated or even killed off the tax package.
The federal deficit is ballooning: it reached US$96.3 billion in February alone.
To cover the cost of the conflict the Senate voted to hold back US$100 billion of the US$726 billion tax cut that the president had proposed.
There has been widespread speculation about the cost of the war. Last year, the then economic adviser to the president, Lawrence Lindsey, estimated that it could cost between US$100 billion and US$200 billion.
His naming a figure was said to have infuriated Bush and contributed to him losing his job. More recently the defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, put the cost at "under US$50 billion".
By waiting until the bombs have started falling to issue his request, Bush hopes to avoid much of the usual party wrangling.
Democrats who were openly critical of his stance on Iraq have rallied around him since hostilities began. Daschle, who complained last week that the White House had "failed miserably" at diplomacy, said at the weekend that the country was "united in support" for the president.
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