September, 08 2011, 02:48pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Olivia Alperstein, Media Manager, Institute for Policy Studies,olivia@ips-dc.org
10 Years: Cost of War
Finding Funding for FEMA? Take a Look at Iraq
WASHINGTON
October 7, 2011 will mark ten years since the beginning of the U.S. war in Afghanistan. With this in mind, NPP has released new numbers, analysies and tools about the costs of a decade at war.
Research findings include:
- Since 2001, the U.S. has spent $7.6 trillion in security-related efforts, including: Department of Defense base-line, nuclear weapons, Homeland Security and war.
- From 2000 to 2011, security-related discretionary spending increased 96% versus non-security discretionary spending which increased 39%.
- The 2011 cost of interest on the national debt which is related to military spending is $80 billion. This is equal to the 2012 budgets of Agriculture, Commerce, Interior, Labor and Transportation combined.
- 2011 spending on the Iraq War ($47.4 billion) would pay for all the public disaster funding that FEMA disbursed from Fiscal Year 1999 through Fiscal Year 2010.
- 2011 spending on the Afghan War ($122 billion) is greater than the 2012 deficits of 42 states and the District of Columbia combined.
You can find a host of new information here.
Also check out our latest Cost of War visualization.
What's in 10 Years After 9/11? The following is a brief list:
Cost of War Counters - A running tally of the cost to date of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with total war spending, updated every millisecond. New: see the counters roll for the entire nation, your state, county, Congressional District and/or city/town.
Trade Offs- Explore the magnitude and meaning of U.S. war costs using our interactive trade off tool. New: we've updated the tool to include new trade offs focused on housing, an annual grocery bill and a family's yearly energy bill.
Making Sense of War Dollars - A series of visual stories comparing various war-related funding and military spending figures to other budget numbers - such as veterans' benefits, stimulus funding, Pell grants, and state budget shortfalls, to name a few.
Top Ten Military Spending Numbers (you need to know) - New from NPP: here's a new list of numbers you ought to know about the U.S. military.
What's At Stake? - 50 current state-level briefs focused on the local impact of war spending. Check out what your state could have funded if it re-directed war-related federal income tax dollars toward Head Start, health insurance, renewable energy, higher education and more.
NPP Publications - Factsheets and analyses related to the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon budget, and security-related spending.
NPP Blogs - A timely look at issues related to war spending and national security, featuring "How Safe Are You? What Almost $8 Trillion in National Security Bought You"written by NPP's Christopher Hellman for Tomdispatch.org.
War Costs by State - NPP used Google Map technology to explore a state's cost of war and rate of poverty combined with the number of homeless individuals and the percent of people with food insecurity, including people who cut meals or worried about running out of food. Use NPP's data to tell your own story and share it!
Check outIf I Had a Trillion Dollars, a national youth video contest.
For real-time updates, connect to Cost of War through Facebookand Twitter.
The National Priorities Project (NPP) is a 501(c)(3) research organization that analyzes and clarifies federal data so that people can understand and influence how their tax dollars are spent. Located in Northampton, MA, since 1983, NPP focuses on the impact of federal spending and other policies at the national, state, congressional district and local levels. For more information, go to https://nationalpriorities.org.
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Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy on Monday signed legislation protecting librarians and prohibiting public schools and libraries from banning books—a move that came as Republican state lawmakers are proscribing a record number of titles, many of them works addressing sexual orientation, gender identity, and racial injustice.
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According to a statement from Murphy's office:
Under the law, boards of education and governing boards of public libraries are barred from excluding books because of the origin, background, or views of the material or of its authors. Further, boards of education and governing boards of public libraries are prevented from censoring library material based on a disagreement with a viewpoint, idea, or concept, or solely because an individual finds certain content offensive, unless they are restricting access to developmentally inappropriate material for certain age groups.
The legislation "also provides protections for library staff members against civil and criminal lawsuits related to complying with this law."
New Jersey Association of School Librarians President Karen Grant said that "the Freedom to Read Act recognizes the professionalism, honor, work ethics, and performance of school and public library staff" and "promotes libraries as trusted sources of information and recognizes the many roles that libraries play in students' lives."
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The leader of one of those groups—Garden State Equality executive director Christian Fuscarino—said, "Gov. Murphy just made it clear: In New Jersey, censorship loses, and freedom wins."
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As Mother Jones reporter Isabela Dias detailed Monday:
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