Costs of War
Published August 18, 2021
Tags Linda J. Bilmes
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The Long-Term Costs of United States Care for Veterans of the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars

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As veterans continue to bear huge physical and mental costs from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the costs of caring for post-9/11 war vets will reach between $2.2 and $2.5 trillion by 2050 – most of which has not yet been paid. The U.S. may shortchange its promises to these veterans if the government does not make adequate budgetary commitments.

Long after the post-9/11 wars end, the largest single long-term cost of these wars will be benefits and medical care for the men and women who served in Afghanistan, Iraq, and related theatres since 2001, and their dependents. Expenditures to care for veterans doubled from 2.4 percent of the 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 costs associated with caring for post-9/11 veterans will not reach their peak until decades after the conflict, as veterans’ needs increase with age.

"The total costs of caring for veterans of the post-9/11 wars are estimated to reach $2.2-$2.5 trillion."

More than 40 percent of post-9/11 veterans – an extraordinarily high proportion – are entitled to lifetime disability payments, and this number is expected to increase to 54 percent over the next 30 years. By comparison, fewer than 25 percent of veterans from World War II, Korea, Vietnam and the first Gulf War have been certified as having a service-connected disability.

The report recommends the establishment of a Veterans Trust Fund to track and set aside the needed funding for the long-term care of post 9/11 veterans.

"More than 40% of veterans of post-9/11 wars are entitled to lifetime disability payments. This number is expected to increase to 54% over the next 30 years."

About the Author

  • Linda Bilmes

    Linda Bilmes

    Daniel Patrick Moynihan Senior Lecturer in Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School
    linda_bilmes@hks.harvard.edu
    Website

    Professor Linda J. Bilmes is a leading expert on budgeting and public finance. She is the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Senior Lecturer in Public Policy and Public Finance at the Harvard Kennedy School, where she teaches courses on budgeting and financial management and teaches in the Newly-elected Members of Congress and Newly-Elected Mayors programs. She is Faculty Chair of the Greater Boston Applied Field Lab and the Bloomberg Cities Field Lab, an experiential learning program in which students work directly on complex challenges in cities across the country. She also teaches at the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford University.

    Dr. Bilmes served as Assistant Secretary for Management and Budget and Chief Financial Officer of the U.S. Department of Commerce from 1998 to 2001 and as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce from 1997-1998. She has served on numerous government boards and commissions, including the National Parks Second Century Commission, the U.S. Department of Interior National Park Service Advisory Board, the US Department of Labor Veterans Employment and Opportunity Board, and a US Department of Treasury Commission on the InterAmerican Investment Corporation. She is co-chair of Economists for Peace and Security and serves as the U.S. member on the United Nations Committee of Experts on Public Administration. She also serves on the advisory board of the Institute for Veterans and Military Families at Syracuse University.

    She has authored numerous books, book chapters and papers including the New York Times bestseller The Three Trillion Dollar War (with Joseph E. Stiglitz), The People Factor (with W. Scott Gould), and Valuing the US National Parks and Programs: America’s Best Investment (with John Loomis). Her forthcoming book The Ghost Budget: Paying for America’s Wars will be published in 2026. Her research focuses on how budgetary resources are allocated, particularly with respect to the value of public lands, state and local governments, costs of war, veterans, and the military. She has received many awards and honors, including the 2008 “Speaking Truth to Power” Award by the American Friends Service Committee. Her research has been published in The New York Times, Financial Times, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, the Atlantic, Harvard Business Review, Boston Globe, Barron’s and Foreign Policy and numerous academic journals. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. She holds an AB and MBA from Harvard University and a D.Phil. from the University of Oxford.