In short, the president will get the money he needs, but no free ride. On Thursday morning, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright appeared before a House Appropriations subcommittee to discuss funding for her department in the next fiscal year. But she could not escape Kosovo. The number that I am reading in the newspapers, in my opinion will be totally inadequate to carry even the Balkans issue to the end of the fiscal year. We are confronting an outrage we cannot accept and only we and our allies have the muscle to oppose.
Cost estimates are often difficult to come by and they are even harder to stick to.
Everyday we delay in sending it up it rises. War is not cheap. But again, if it goes to a ground war where we're really forcibly trying to push the Serbs out of Kosovo, it could be much more costly. Whatever the final cost, it appears likely that Congress will agree to take it out of this year's budget surplus. CNN's Candy Crowley contributed to this report.