The War In Afghanistan: How Much Are You Paying?

WASHINGTON -- As Americans breathe a sigh of relief over finally filing the returns on what they owe (or are owed from) Uncle Sam this Tax Day, the progressive group Rethink Afghanistan wants them to consider how much of their money is funding the war in Afghanistan, now in its 10th year.

The group, a project of the Brave New Foundation, has created a Cost of War calculator, allowing Americans to figure out how much of their tax dollars are going toward the war, based on their income and filing status.

For example, a single person making $40,000 in 2010 essentially paid $1,694 for the war. A married couple filing jointly and earning a combined $100,000 has $4,757 of their tax dollars going toward the effort.

The United States is spending more than $100 billion a year in Afghanistan, amounting to about $2 billion a week.

The Defense Department received $513 billion in funding in the FY 2011 continuing resolution, approximately $5 billion above last year's level. Another $158 billion is provided for overseas contingency operations (emergency funding). The war in Afghanistan will receive $108 billion of that funding, while the war in Iraq will receive $50 billion.

Last week, a bipartisan group of lawmakers, along with groups like the Liberty Coalition and Sojourners, participated in an event hosted by Rethink Afghanistan on Capitol Hill highlighting the cost of war.

"We can't pay our bills here, yet we're spending $8 billion a month in Afghanistan," Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.), one of the event's panelists, recently told The New York Times. "I don't know what our country is trying to accomplish. History says Afghanistan will never be a nation. It will be a country of tribes. We're wearing out the troops and spending money we don't have."

In a CNN interview last week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said he's not "confident" that the war in Afghanistan will be successful, remarking, "[T]he American people have, and rightfully so, a very short attention span. We cannot continue to keep dumping this money. ... Think of what that would do for renewable energy for this country."

Comments

[incredulouslyso]

10:22 PM on 04/26/2011

wow $4757 - and to think I could of had health insurance instead...

[muck-raker]

07:22 AM on 04/26/2011

Why do we fight? Let us not say we do not know the answer, Robert Fisk

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/afghanistans-resources-could-make-it-the-richest-mining-region-on-earth-2000507.html

[Meesterclean]

12:39 PM on 04/19/2011

Also, when they just print money to pay for things like the occupations, it may not directly take money out of our pockets, but it devalues the dollar in our pockets.

[ewb2001]

12:01 PM on 04/19/2011

More & More sanity, I hope it is contagious!

[Laguna Da Progressive]

10:52 AM on 04/19/2011

For once both sides of the are thinking what the rest of us are have been saying , Get us the Hell out of Afghanastan and Iraq Rebuild our roads and bridges take care of our poor and elderly, pay our teaches what they are worth and get this palcwe back on track.

[mumi009]

08:36 AM on 04/19/2011

Nobody is paying for the wars - yet. Both are being financed by borrowing. Taxpayers will be paying the interest and paying down the debt for years to come.

Unless they belong to the upper 10 percent of the income scale.

[AZreb]

08:21 AM on 04/19/2011

It is not only the money - more importantly it is the LIVES of our troops! The dead, the wounded in mind and body - the ones who will never come back to their families - the ones who come back but are wounded not only bodily but in ways we cannot see.

Many of the homeless we see now are vets from other wars - will this be the case in the vets from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the future?

[IndyFem]

08:39 AM on 04/19/2011

AZ..Thank you for pointing out that this is NOT merely about the money...but the "loss of lives" as well.
Already your fan...

[Kymbirleigh]

12:05 PM on 04/19/2011

Not to mention the ones that do manage to come back, but can't adjust to their old lifestyle and struggle with suicidal thoughts daily. Many of my friends in the military have gone through this. They come back home and don't know how to live anymore. One in particular is really struggling with survivor's regret... He feels he should have died instead of those around him.

My husband is a vet and also works at the VA Clinic, the vast majority of their patients are homeless vets... Thankfully they can at least get medical treatment.

[Johnd139]

08:03 AM on 04/19/2011

What would Halleburton do if we quit?

[Michael Lardner]

07:50 AM on 04/19/2011

Our nation is engaged, finally, in a debate on our budget deficit. I sadly observe both party’s trimming around the edges of our discretionary budget and reducing programs largely aimed at helping the economically disadvantaged, while further lowering the taxes on the very wealthy.
When President Clinton left office there was a budget surplus of approximately $235bn and when President Bush left office the deficit was approximately $1.2Tr. There are a number of major causes of this but the top 3 are the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and the significant tax cuts to the top few percent of the wealthy in our country.
I am bewildered that the discussions on reducing the budget deficit have not included the major causes of the deficit, the two wars and incredibly want to further reduce the tax burden on the wealthy. This was originally done to support the “trickle-down” theory economic, that we tried for the past decade and did not work. Why do we continue to do this?
The math of the Deficit can be simplified; it is currently approximately $1.4Tr; the cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, to date is almost $1 Tr., In very simple terms, can we afford to wage these wars while continuing to fund them by borrowing? Why are we not discussing these wars as a major cause of the deficit and why do we continue to support a failed economic policy?

[ewb2001]

12:05 PM on 04/19/2011

God forbid anyone be tagged as a pacifist, or with not supporting our troops! I believe continuing the cost of these wars in lives & money is un-American! It is un-American to prop up a bunch of drug dealing Afgani warlords!

[BGagliardi529]

07:49 AM on 04/19/2011

If we are in Afghanistan to help them re-establish a sound Democratic Govt., help rebuild infrastructure,rebuild schools,hospitals, help establish a non- drug producing economy, change how they treat women and children,the elderly, let the United Nations and its members do it. Bring the Troops home and let them work on the aforementioned things here in the U.S. It seems we have like needs. If we need to keep some Troops there to truly search for Bin Laden,do it, but don't keep the Troops there for the job security of Generals,Policy Makers and the Defense Industry (e.g.Cruise Missiles cost around a $1,000,000 each),the Oil Industry ( Defense Department is largest user of Fuel in U.S.) in a Country where we no sooner build schools,hospitals,roads they are destroyed,only to have us rebuild them again and again as their Civil War continues.

[IndyFem]

08:45 AM on 04/19/2011

As we concentrate on the Quality of Life in far away lands....the Quality of Life here at home is quickly declining. Our Leaders must be confident that we will never have the nerve to Uprise ourselves.

[brit prof]

07:25 AM on 04/26/2011

You bomb them year in, year out, you leave 150,000 of them dead and you have the nerve to talk about being there to build schools, hospitals and bring them democracy?

Honestly! Have you been asleep for the last ten years. I can tell you this: the Afghanis haven't had a wink in all that time.

Shame on you!

[BGagliardi529]

11:01 AM on 04/27/2011

I do not mean to belittle the Afghanis. We should stop killing the innocent people and continue to work with the United Nations, of which we are one of the largest members, and help the people to recover from all the destruction and tragic loss of innocent lives that they have suffered. Do the job as intended, to find those responsible for the attacks of 9/11 and bring them to Justice. Let's use the United Nations to help resolve their Civil War and try to return some form of stability to their Country.

[cdecisneros]

07:01 AM on 04/19/2011

We are not paying for it. Oil is right? Where were the baggers when this was going on? OH that is right. Bush is white. No problem.

[orygunrain]

04:29 AM on 04/19/2011

Interesting bit of news from across the pond..
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/apr/18/extraordinary-rendition-uk-involvement-mod

[muck-raker]

07:32 AM on 04/26/2011

orygunrain excellent post F&F more: “WHY is our Defense Spending so high: ..take particular note to last paragraph(­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­t­­h­­­e OIL companies/­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­D­­e­­­f­­­e­­­­n­­­­s­­­­­e Industry are in charge) “Does anyone remember the "cakewalk war" that would last six weeks, cost $60 billion, and be paid for out of Iraqi oil revenues? Today we find that our legislator­­­­­­­­­s have money for WAR but NO Money for the Public now out of work because of Banksters misdeeds

Lindsey was fired for over-estim­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­a­­­t­­­­i­­­­n­­­­­g cost of a war that, according to Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes, has cost 15 times more than Lindsey estimated. And US still has 50,000 troops in Iraq.

Does anyone remember that just prior to US invasion of Iraq, US government declared victory over Taliban in Afghanista­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­n­­­?

Does anyone remember that reason Dubya gave for invading Iraq was Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destructio­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­n­­­, weapons that US government knew did not exist?

Are Americans aware that the same neoconserv­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­a­­­t­­­­i­­­­v­­­­­e­­­­­s who made these fantastic mistakes, or told these fabulous lies, are still in control of government in Washington­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­?

The "war on terror" is in tenth year. What is it really all about?

The answer is that "war on terror" is about creating real terrorists­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­. The US government desperatel­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­y needs real terrorists in order to justify its expansion of wars against Muslim countries and keep the American people sufficient­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­l­­­y fearful that they continue to accept the police state that provides "security from terrorists­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­,­­­" but not from government that has discarded civil liberties”­­­­­­­­­­­­”­”­”­”­”

[dead WASP]

04:23 AM on 04/19/2011

...in blood and treasure, far too much.

[avril666]

03:04 AM on 04/19/2011

$8 Billion a month doesn't include the costs of caring for the disabled veterans and their impact on our health and social structures.

PTSD, broken families, foreclosures, declining investment in our own infrastructure so we can secure or threaten gas fields in Mid Asia...tsk tsk tsk

[Carolab]

01:13 AM on 04/19/2011

Amy Goodman talked about this article in RS on Link TV

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-kill-team-20110327

[NessEliot1932]

02:01 AM on 04/19/2011

Just awful!

CRIMERICA

[Carolab]

02:29 AM on 04/19/2011

H O R R I F Y I N G