hosted by
East Bay Citizens for Peace
April, 2011

Direct Costs of War:
Iraq War:
$790 billion, as of March 2011
$9 billion per month average cost
$3.12 billion, cost to RI
Afghanistan War:
$386 billion, as of March 2011
$1.55 billion, cost to RI
Total:
$1.12 trillion, as of March 2011
$4.67 billion, cost to RI
Source: National Priorities Project, Cost of War project, http://costofwar.com/en/

$47 billion, GDP in 2009 or $41,000 per person
$54,562 median household income in 2008
408,424 households
$7.66 billion, budget of RI State Government 2012
$3.17 billion from general revenue
$2.55 billion from federal funds
$1.72 billion from other sources
$209.5 million from restricted or dedicated fee funds
$295 million projected deficit

US Federal Budget 2010
$3.55 trillion
$2 trillion mandatory
$1.55 trillion discretionary

US Federal Budget Exercise

A 25 Percent Solution:
Withdraw in a timely fashion from Iraq = $105 billion in year one
Withdraw from Afghanistan = 25 billion
Eliminate wasteful weapons systems = 33 billion
Reduce active nuclear warheads = 16 billion
Close half of US overseas military bases = 51 billion
Trim unused air wings and sea forces = 5 billion
Eliminated waste in procurement and operations = 20 billion
Total: $255 billion, or 25 percent of Federal Budget’s discretionary spending

$1 billion in Federal spending creates
8,555 jobs for defense
17,687 jobs for education and
19,795 for mass transit.
Source: Robert Pollin and Heidi Garrett-Peltier, (2007) The U.S.
Employment Effects of Military and Domestic Spending
Priorities. Amherst: University of Massachusetts.

Some resources:
New Priorities Network: http://newprioritiesnetwork.org/resources
25 Percent Solution: http://www.25percentsolution.com/
Friends Committee on National Legislation,
Rebalancing Our Nation’s Checkbook http://fcnl.org/issues/checkbook/