The Fog of the Budget

By Howard Gleckman

NO ESTIMATES. As a result, Bush's budget resembles Swiss cheese -- and the holes may be more interesting than the substance. Start with Iraq. On Jan. 24, Lieutenant General James J. Lovelace Jr., the director of Army operations, said that for budget planning purposes, the Pentagon was assuming the U.S. would maintain current troop levels in that war-torn country at least through calendar 2006. The CBO figures the price tag at $70 billion a year. But the Bush budget will not include any new money to keep U.S. tr