‘Shameful’: $4,049 of Average US Taxpayer's Bill Last Year Went to War and Weaponry

A new analysis released Thursday estimates that the average American taxpayer shelled out over $4,000 to the federal government last year "for militarism and its support systems" such as the Pentagon, whose already-massive annual budget is poised to surge to $1.5 trillion if President Donald Trump gets his way.

The National Priorities Project (NPP) at the Institute for Policy Studies found in its latest annual Tax Receipt report that, through their federal taxes, the average US taxpayer contributed $4,049.35 to Pentagon contractors, military personnel, nuclear weapons, aid to foreign militaries, and last year's bombing of Iran's nuclear energy facilities. That's significantly more than the average US taxpayer contributed to healthcare for low-income Americans through Medicaid—$2,492.

NPP's estimated militarism sum for last year does not include costs related to the current, massively unpopular US-Israeli war on Iran, which began on February 28, 2026 and has already cost Americans billions at the pump.

"But if we place the 2026 Iran war costs in the context of our 2025 tax receipt and put the cost at $35 billion—a line the US is likely on the verge of crossing—the average taxpayer will have paid $130 for the war on Iran, eight times more than the $16 the average taxpayer paid for a full year of home heating and energy assistance in 2025," NPP said.

The $1,870 that the average US taxpayer paid toward Pentagon contractors in 2025 was "fifteen times as much as the $124 the average taxpayer paid for school lunches and other nutrition programs," the analysis found.

“It’s shameful that our tax dollars are doing more to bomb children in Iran and other countries than to feed and educate children here," said Lindsay Koshgarian, NPP's program director. "Instead of spending even more of our hard-earned dollars on war and mass deportation, we deserve a massive reinvestment in making this country a place where we can all survive and thrive."

"We’re facing chronic underinvestment in this country, from healthcare to education and more. That money has instead been funding a $1 trillion war machine and a class of Pentagon contractors getting rich off our tax dollars."

NPP noted that Trump's recent request for a $1.5 trillion US military budget for the coming fiscal year would, if approved by Congress, further drive up costs for American taxpayers.

"Our tax receipt shows why so many people in this country are struggling," said Koshgarian. "We’re facing chronic underinvestment in this country, from healthcare to education and more. That money has instead been funding a $1 trillion war machine and a class of Pentagon contractors getting rich off our tax dollars. The good news is that if we reverse our backwards priorities, we can start to make Americans’ lives better."

MarketWatch reported earlier this week that Americans are "increasingly saying they won't pay their taxes this year as a political protest," citing the illegal war on Iran and Trump's unleashing of federal immigration agents and National Guard troops on US cities.

Activist and attorney Rachel Cohen wrote in Current Affairs magazine last month that she is not paying her federal income taxes this year, noting that "our enormous military budget is going to illegal wars of aggression in multiple hemispheres."

"When I learned about pacifists who participated in draft refusal during the Vietnam War," Cohen wrote, "I was confident they were doing the right thing, and that if I were similarly situated, I would have joined them."