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The White House grabbed the attention of ABC and NBC when it submitted its $2.9tr federal budget for Fiscal Year 2008. NBC's David Gregory traced its projections for spending on the war in Iraq: $170bn this year, $145bn next, $50bn in 2009, zero spending in 2010 and beyond. He quoted George Bush's explanation for why this timeline was "no timeline" but "just projections." The President said: "We do not want to send mixed signals to an enemy or to a struggling democracy or to our troops." So he was sending mixed signals to Congress instead.
ABC's Jonathan Karl aired a clip of then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, interviewed on his network's This Week in 2003. Rumsfeld cited cost projections for the entire war effort at less than $50bn. When George Stephanopoulos countered with a $300bn estimate, Rumsfeld answered: "Baloney!"
Karl concluded that "Democrats have already declared this budget dead on arrival." Accordingly, CBS did not assign a correspondent to cover the casket.
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