Originally Posted by
qtiger
This is because the Iraq war is not on the budget. It is off-budget spending.
Edit: Here's discretionary spending, from the CBO. As you can see, the Defense appropriations are as large as all the other catagories combined.
http://www.cbo.gov/budget/approps/approps.pdf
Exactly, the cost to defend this country from Islamic Terrorism is not a budgetary item. You cannot put a price tag on winning a war. The fact remains that the DOD budget is less than the others, and unless you do not want to defend the country then the discretionary funding is needed.