WGA Strike hits W's Administration - again!

Who knew the Writers' Strike would force W's Administration to recycle old scripts?

Today, from Think Progress:
Paulson: $70 Billion War Budget Is A ‘Placeholder,’ Will Need ‘Unknowable Amount’ Later

SEN. BINGAMAN: So we need the $108 billion plus we need the $70 billion plus we need whatever Gen. Petraeus says in his report in March? And the amount that Gen. Petraeus asked for is not included in the budget?

PAULSON: It’s an unknowable amount. … That’s a placeholder and it will change based on what the requirement is.

... And 5 years ago, 28 Feb 2003:

"We have no idea what we will need until we get there on the ground," Mr. Wolfowitz said at a hearing of the House Budget Committee. "Every time we get a briefing on the war plan, it immediately goes down six different branches to see what the scenarios look like. If we costed each and every one, the costs would range from $10 billion to $100 billion."

... and, just for grins, note that Mr. Wolfowitz's cited upper limit is $100Bn. If memory serves, we've already spent more than $450Bn on the Iraq misadventure!

I guess it's easier recycling previously successful talking points than actually trying to think.

[I seem to recall that Mr. Paulson was recruited from Goldman-Sachs - a high-powered Wall Street firm. Is this really how he and other Wall Street players manage money? What we need to budget is "an unknowable amount"??? No wonder the economy is going down the tubes!]

Going back to Mr. Wolfowitz's testimony from five years ago...

"There will be an appropriate moment," he [Wolfowitz] said, when the Pentagon would provide Congress with cost ranges. "We're not in a position to do that right now."

Hmmm... Five (5) years later and they're still "not in a position to do that right now"!!!!

When might we honestly expect the "appropriate moment" to arrive?

Stop the madness!