That's the government for ya...

Only this time all the bureaucratic inefficiency and wasted money isn't the fault of those irresponsible tax 'n spend liberals. No, it's those cut taxes 'n spend Republicans, who continue to throw billions at Halliburton even though it's become pretty obvious that Halliburton has repeatedly defrauded the government. Come to think of it, wasn't this sort of thing happening under Reagan with those $500 toilet seats?

The Army has ordered nearly $5 billion in work from Halliburton Co. to provide logistics support to U.S. troops in Iraq over the next year, $1 billion above what the Army paid for similar services the previous year.

The new order, which comes despite lingering questions about the company's past billing, replaces an earlier agreement that expired last June but had been extended through this spring to ensure a continuous supply of food, sanitation, laundry and other logistical services for the troops, according to Linda K. Theis, an Army spokeswoman.

The new order does not change the nature of Halliburton's work, but the higher price tag does reflect the growing demand for the company's services as U.S. forces continue to battle a stubborn insurgency two years after the fall of Saddam Hussein.

The increased bill parallels ballooning overall costs in Iraq. President Bush said in March 2003 that combat in Iraq would cost about $60 billion. But the cost for military operations alone had hit $135.3 billion as of March 2005, according to the Office of Management and Budget. The price tag would be far higher if the costs to fund the Coalition Provisional Authority, reconstruction projects and intelligence operations were included.