“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.” — Dwight D. Eisenhower
$100 billion.
That is the cost to date of the war in Iran on American households since it began Feb. 28 of this year, according to Moody’s.
$25 billion.
The U.S. tax dollars spent to fund the conflict that has grown to now include Lebanon and a complete closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the vital waterway responsible for 20% of the world’s oil supply. $125 billion. In four months. Let that figure sink in.
Next, let’s compare that to federal policies that would improve the lives of people in this country.
Healthcare for All
$450 billion per year
Sounds like a lot? Compare it to the $25 billion spent on this war in four months, the $70 billion in additional funding being pushed on us for immigration enforcement, and the $1.6 billion slush fund for January 6 rioters currently on the table.
If that doesn’t upset you, do you remember the tariffs? Congress found that consumers and American households bore roughly 86%-96% of the tariff costs, totaling more than $231 billion between February 2025 and January 2026. Combined with the cost incurred from this war, we’ve spent more than $350 billion, and the only thing we’ve seen in return is a struggling job market, political division and increased energy uncertainty.
Universal Pre-K
$351 billion over a 10-year period, according to research from the University of Pennsylvania. Today, parents pay upward of $15,000 a year for childcare while they work. That’s $35 billion per year. In four months, we’ve spent $25 billion on a war with no end in sight.
Free College
$58 billion per year
That is the cost if the government were to pay the full cost of tuition before grant aid is applied. We’ve spent nearly half of that in Iran and nearly four times that on tariffs in the last year.
Student Loan Forgiveness
$355.2 billion ($10,000 per borrower)
As a reminder, households spent a collective $231 billion on tariffs in the last year alone.
Ending Homelessness
$20 billion to $30 billion in initial upfront investment, followed by an estimated $10 billion to $15 billion annually to sustain housing, services and prevention programs. We’ve spent that on the war in Iran in four months.
These are real figures from real analysis based on real costs. And the spending is real. The next time you hear the government say it cannot afford to improve the lives of everyday people, remember: It’s not that the funds aren’t being spent — our priorities are misaligned.
Morial is president/CEO of the National Urban League.
