Cost of Iraq.

House and Senate negotiators have neared a compromise to finally pass the supplemental spending bill, which will provide more than $70 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan. “After the talks broke early yesterday morning, lawmakers came back to prepare a new fiscal 2007 Pentagon budget that includes another $50 billion in emergency funding, largely for Iraq operations. The cumulative U.S. investment in Iraq is now approaching $370 billion; more striking is the rapid escalation in the pace of monthly expenditures.”