Bush's surge already in latest budget

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The White House yesterday said there already is enough money in the budget to pay for President Bush's proposed troop surge in Iraq, leaving Congress almost no viable way to stop him before he commits the troops.

Some members of Congress had proposed using the power of the purse to cut off funds for the new troops, but White House press secretary Tony Snow said there's already enough money in the pipeline to begin the deployment of more than 17,000 soldiers to Baghdad to quell Sunni-Shi'ite violence and another 4,000 Marines to Anbar province to go after al Qaeda fighters.

"Funding for the forces and to dispatch them to the region, it's already in the budget. So we're going to proceed with those plans," Mr. Snow said.

That leaves Congress with few other options.

One possibility, proposed by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat, would rescind Congress' 2002 blanket grant of authority to use force in Iraq, and would require Mr. Bush to gain congressional approval before boosting forces.

Yesterday, Mr. Kennedy asked the administration to hold off on deploying the troops to give Congress more time to consider the issue.

"It took the president ... two months to make this judgment. Let us have 10 days to try and make a judgment and a decision whether the American people are behind this," he told Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates.

"I take your point. I will certainly pass the message to the president," Mr. Gates replied.

The president, in an interview to be aired tomorrow on CBS' "60 Minutes," said he is convinced he has the authority to move forward with his plan.

"I think in this situation I do and I fully understand [Congress] could try to stop me from doing it," Mr Bush said. "But I made my decision. We're going forward."