Thanks for visiting National Priorities Project's Cost of War page. You are being redirected to Cost of National Security, our new resource showing the Cost of War in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as spending for the Department of Defense, Homeland Security, Nuclear Weapons, and Foreign Military Assistance.
If you have any questions or need assistance locating Cost of War information, please do not hesitate to contact us at info@nationalpriorities.org or 413-584-9556.
Try using Cost of National Security with our Trade-Offs tool. Curious about these counters? Visit our notes & sources page.
On September 30, 2015, the last day of the federal fiscal year and the deadline for the new year's budget, Congress passed legislation known as a "continuing resolution" to continue government funding at fiscal year 2015 levels until December 11, 2015. The counters will reflect those funding levels for fiscal year 2016 until new budget information is available.
What counts as national security depends on your perspective. Some people consider wars overseas to be national security.
Others consider the U.S. military, fighter aircraft, and the American nuclear weapon stockpile to be national security.
Some people consider giving weapons to other
countries to be national security.
After Sept. 11, 2001, we created the Department of Homeland Security and poured hundreds of billions of dollars into it, and some people consider that to be national security.
Others think of national security as having enough to eat, a place to live, plus health care, clean air to breathe and water to drink,
and access to an education.
Does our budget reflect your priorities?
Why are these numbers different from the numbers in our Trade-Offs tool?
The numbers in Trade-Offs are projected total costs for a federal program in a given year. The numbers in the Cost of National Security counters are changing in real time to show how much has been spent on a program this year to date.
Last Updated: May 28, 2015
