U.S. Federal Spending

• In the two years since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, the U.S. government has spent $21.7 billion on military aid to Israel. The U.S. has spent an additional $9.65 – $12.07 billion on military operations in Yemen and the wider region since October 7, 2023, for a total of $31.35 – $33.77 billion and counting in U.S. spending on the post-10/7 wars.

• H.R. 1 provides $156 billion for Pentagon and military-related programs in fiscal years 2025 - 2029. In fiscal year 2026, it increases Pentagon and military-related spending by over 13 percent from FY25, pushing ‘national defense’ spending beyond the $1 trillion mark.

• U.S. military spending produces an average of five jobs per $1 million in spending, including both direct jobs and jobs in the private industry supply chain. In contrast, 13 jobs are created for every $1 million in education spending – nearly three times as much employment. 

• Between 2020 and 2024, $771 billion in Pentagon contracts went to just five firms: Lockheed Martin ($313 billion), RTX (formerly Raytheon, $145 billion), Boeing ($115 billion), General Dynamics ($116 billion), and Northrop Grumman ($81 billion). In comparison, the total diplomacy, development, and humanitarian aid budget, excluding military aid, was $356 billion.

• The U.S. spends over twice as much as China in military spending, even after accounting for differences in labor costs and purchasing power.

• While the Russian military maintains the world’s largest stockpile of nuclear weaponry, the Russian defense budget amounts to less than 1/10 of the U.S. defense budget. Western strategists have a long tradition of over-inflating Russia as a military threat.

Spending on the Post-9/11 Wars

• From late 2001 through fiscal year 2022, the U.S. appropriated and is obligated to spend an estimated $8 trillion for the post-9/11 wars — an estimated $5.8 trillion in appropriations, plus an additional minimum of $2.2 trillion for obligations to care for the veterans of these wars through the next several decades.

• Of the $8 trillion total, about $2.3 trillion were spent on the budget category for post-9/11 military operations, “Overseas Contingency Operations.” Over $1 trillion has already been spent on interest payments, since these operations have been funded entirely through debt. The base budget of the Pentagon has increased by about $900 billion above what it would have been in the absence of war; Homeland Security spending on preventing and countering terrorism within the U.S. has totaled over $1.1 trillion since the inception of the Department of Homeland Security in 2002; and current and future costs for veterans has added nearly $2.2 trillion and that figure will continue to grow.

• From 2001 to 2019, the U.S. spent over $2 trillion on the war in Afghanistan.

• In the 20 years of war from 2003 to 2023, the U.S. spent and obligated over $2.89 trillion on the wars in Iraq and Syria ($1.79 trillion spent through 2023, plus $1.1 trillion in obligations for future veterans’ care).

• These federal expenditures and obligations do not include many other types of budgetary costs, including state and local government spending, private costs, future interest payments, or opportunity costs. Nor do they include costs to foreign governments or economies.

• Western allies of the United States bore significant costs in the post-9/11 wars, in terms of both dollars and lives. When measured as a percentage of their annual baseline military expenditures, the United Kingdom and Canada spent roughly half as much on Afghanistan as the United States. And when measured in terms relative to their respective Gross Domestic Products (GDPs), the U.S. provided less foreign aid than did the U.K., and about the same amount as Germany and Canada.

Future U.S. Spending

• As veterans continue to bear huge physical and mental costs from the post-9/11 wars, the costs of caring for these veterans will reach between $2.2 and $2.5 trillion by 2050 – most of which has not yet been paid. The U.S. risks shortchanging its promises to these veterans if the government does not make adequate budgetary commitments.
• The costs associated with caring for veterans do not reach their peak until decades after the wars they fought, as veterans’ needs increase with age. Expenditures to care for veterans doubled from 2.4 percent of the total federal budget in FY 2001 to 4.9 percent in FY 2020, even as the total number of living veterans from all U.S. wars declined from 25.3 million to 18.5 million.
• The post 9/11 wars were “credit card wars.” By 2030, the U.S. will have spent as much on interest payments as it did on “overseas contingency operations” for the wars themselves – over $2 trillion.

Homeland Security

• The creation of the new cabinet-level Homeland Security agency after 9/11 with a mission to prevent, respond to, and recover from terrorist attacks, constituted the largest reorganization in the U.S. government since World War II. Activities considered “homeland security” are carried out by the federal government as well as by state and local governments, especially law enforcement officers, and private entities. Federal government expenditures fall under Customs and Border Patrol, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Transportation Security Administration, and others. 

• Since the creation of the Department of Homeland Security in 2003, outlays for DHS have totaled over $1.1 trillion as of 2025, according to the Office of Management and Budget . 

• State and municipal governments also spend a significant amount on homeland security, but the total is difficult to calculate given a lack of government data.

Reconstruction

• The costs of war include U.S. funding for international assistance, including reconstruction activities where military interventions have destroyed various types of infrastructure. Reconstruction work has traditionally been undertaken by the Department of State or the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), though it is increasingly now being undertaken by the military. Regardless of the agency or department receiving the funds, spending on “reconstruction” and international aid has increasingly gone to security purposes in recent years, including to local police and military.

(Page updated as of June 2025)