Staggering deficit sets up battle over fewer dollars

By David Firestone
The New York Times

WASHINGTON — When President Bush informed the nation last Sunday night that remaining in Iraq next year would cost an additional $87 billion, many of those who actually will pay that bill were unable to watch.
They had been put to bed by their parents.

Administration officials acknowledged the next day that every dollar of that cost will be borrowed, a loan that economists say will be repaid by the next generation of taxpayers and the generation after that. The $166 billion cost of the work so far in Iraq and Afghanistan, which has stunned many in Washington, will be added to what already was the largest budget deficit the nation has ever known.

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