The President and the Congress are having a boxing match on the Iraq war money. Bush just went on television today with a grim face saying that if the Congress does not fund his $196 billion request for next year, the Pentagon will have to start laying off civilians and closing operations on American bases. He says that there is only so much money that the DOD can move around. Congressman John Murtha, chair of the subcommittee that appropriates defense money, had the House pass a $50 billion for the troops in Iraq for next year with the caveat that the White House has to have a troop withdrawal plan if more money is to come. He asked reporters last week, "Because the Pentagon says it, you believe it?"

I don't have a dog in this fight about troop withdrawal. I am staying out of that fight because I am too busy trying to follow the money in this war and trying to reform and prevent more damage done to the troops by an over-privatization of this war. I have been looking at defense spending fraud and waste since 1979 and I do know that there is plenty of regular defense funds sloshing around the DOD to fuel the Pentagon for quite a while. But instead of arguing about that, I have an idea of where the President can get some walking around money while he is fighting the Congress about funding: the Iraq war service industry billings are hemorrhaging.

Bush needs to tell the Pentagon to stop paying these contractors without seriously scrubbing the costs and force the contractors to definitize (finalize or make definite the costs) their contracts. Right now these contracts have little oversight and the billings are running like an out-of-control meter on the Iraq supplemental spending. Bush could use this money now and save the taxpayers money later. He then could have the DOD auditors (he needs more of them) to go back over the past four years and recapture the overbilling costs.

You don't think that would be a lot of money? Think again. According to an excellent report just put out by the Center for Public Integrity, "U.S. government contracts for work in Iraq and Afghanistan have grown more than 50 percent annually, from $11 billion in 2004 to almost $17 billion in 2005 and more than $25 billion in 2006."

Has the amount of troops in Iraq grown 50 percent in each of those years? Has the mission grown 50 percent each of those years? Has the construction grown 50 percent in each of those years? No, but the billings have. It is the oldest defense scam on the books...run up the costs on the first contract or task order, that becomes the new normal and then the next contract or task order will have those inflated billings and more. It is especially easy to do this during a war when the Army is counting on you for supplies and security and those few pesky DOD auditors are way behind the lines without access to the necessary books. It also helps to have chaotic book keeping (it is a war, sir) so that the commander just has to take your word on how much things are costing.

So Mr. President, if you need some money while you and the Congress settle your differences, take a look at the contractors. Their excesses could fund your war effort for quite a while. If the President won't do it, perhaps the Congress could make that another mandate for their next funding bill.

Dina Rasor