Ohio share of Iraq, Afghan trillion war costs better spent on quality of life, research group says (sic)
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Examiner
John Michael Spinelli
05/29/2010
COLUMBUS, Ohio - At mid-morning Sunday, on Memorial Day weekend when the nation remembers and honors those who have given their full measure in service to their nation, the Cost of War counter will roll over to $1 trillion, the total amount of funds appropriated by Congress since 2003 to prosecute the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Cost of War counter, devised by The National Priorities Project (NPP), a non-profit research group dedicated to helping people and taxpayers understand federal spending data, is a graphic means to contrast the escalating cost of war with the trade off costs of social benefits like education, housing, health care, public safety and energy the funds could have funded.
To date, $747.3 billion have been appropriated for the U.S. war in Iraq and $299 billion for the war in Afghanistan, NPP said in a release Friday.
The supplemental war funding request for $37 billion would, if Congress approves it as it is expected to do, bring spending for the current federal fiscal year ending September 30th to $136.8 billion.
What quality of life options can $1 trillion buy these days? NPP offers an engaging and wonkish assortment of quality of life options including health care, safety officers, music and arts teachers, affordable housing units, early education places, elementary school teachers and renewable energy.
The group's website allows drill downs of their collected federal war spending data at state, congressional and community levels. After making selections for location, state, program and trade-off, results will appear tailored to your selections.
Ohio share of trillion war costs could buy lots of quality of life
NPP's federal budget trade-offs for the State of Ohio show that its share of the total Iraq and Afghanistan war spending since 2001, $36.7 billion, could have been spent in the following ways:
13,008,578 People with Health Care for One Year OR
831,059 Public Safety Officers for One year OR
561,939 Music and Arts Teachers for One Year OR
4,228,785 Scholarships for University Students for One Year OR
6,612,905 Students receiving Pell Grants of $5550 OR
342,292 Affordable Housing Units OR
22,070,721 Children with Health Care for One Year OR
5,714,094 Head Start Places for Children for One Year OR
584,886 Elementary School Teachers for One Year OR
41,103,684 Homes with Renewable Electricity for One Year
The presentation makes it painfully easy for people and taxpayers to understand the sheer magnitude of how much of their money that went to war operations could have gone to improve the lives of so many Ohioans.
To obtain local cost breakdowns, NPP says it calculated each state's share of taxes paid into federal funds revenues (based on IRS data), including individual income taxes, corporate income taxes, excise, gift and estate taxes. The group then took each state's share of taxes and multiplied it by the total amount of the given item. The Congressional District share is based on the state's population and median household income relative to the total state figure.
