Wonder what good your military dollar could be doing?

Stat house
August 2002

Wonder what good your military dollar could be doing?
The proposed increase in military spending for fiscal year 2003 will cost Americans $36.9 billion. According to the National Priorities Project—a community education, research, and training organization in Northampton, Massachusetts—this money could have provided Head Start programming for 5,342,324 children, health care for 15,825,618 children, 527,587 affordable housing units, or 700,812 elementary school teachers.

NPP reviewed the social service trade-offs implicit in America's increasing defense spending in its report, "Military Spending and What it Could Really Pay For." In a series of statistics specific to each state and the nation as a whole, NPP shows in real numbers exactly how much education, housing, and medical attention the military budget could buy.

While the organization recognizes that it would be expensive to dismantle nuclear weapons, missile defense systems, and the like, the numbers give taxpayers an idea of the consequences of the choices made in the federal budget.

NPP breaks down the numbers according to individual income tax revenues from each state and statistics for fiscal year 2003 and also hosts an interactive personal income tax chart on its Web site where visitors can enter the amount of income tax they pay each year to see a pie chart of where their money goes.

Here's some of what NPP discovered:

Nuclear weapons cost the U.S. $13.2 billion in individual income taxes. This money could provide Head Start programming for 2,380,755 children or health care for 7,052,535 children, or 235,114 affordable housing units, or 313,635 elementary school teachers.

California contributes the biggest portion of the nuclear weapons budget, at a cost of $1.7 billion, or health care for 948,722 children.

Missile Defense costs the U.S. $6.9 billion in individual income taxes. This money could provide Head Start programming for 994,519 children or health care for 2,946,074 children, or 98,215 affordable housing units, or 130,345 elementary school teachers.

Illinois' $366 million share of missile defense could provide 5,222 units of affordable housing for Illinois' low-income residents.

Jet fighter programs cost the U.S. $9.6 billion in individual income taxes. This money could provide Head Start programming for 1,389,753 children or health care for 4,116,879 children, or 137,247 affordable housing units, or 182,146 schoolteachers.

Florida could have 11,220 more elementary school teachers with the money it contributes to jet fighter programs in the U.S. California could have twice as many with its share of the jet fighter budget.

Texas could enroll 388,457 more children in Head Start programs with the money it will spend to increase military spending in fiscal year 2003.

—Tara Dix

For more breakdowns state-by-state, see: http://www.nationalpriorities.org/issues/military/tradeoffs.html

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