The first six days of Donald Trump’s war against Iran cost a a whopping 11.3 billion dollarsaccording to a Pentagon report delivered to Congress earlier this month. The price is expected to continue rising, exponentially.
On Wednesday, Washington Post reported that the Department of Defense will seek $200 billion in supplemental funding from Congress for the iran war effort. The offensive is already taking a toll on Americans at home. Thirteen service members have dead leg with hundreds more injured, and the Iranian blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has caused world oil prices will skyrocket and is expected to affect other commodities, such as fertilizers and medical chemicals.
The war has already left large sectors of Republicans feeling betrayedafter Trump campaigned on a pacifist, anti-interventionist, America First presidency. An endless quagmire costing billions of dollars runs directly counter to his supposed brand, especially since he and his administration have preached the need to cut “wasteful spending” and reduce bloat in the federal government.
The first six months of Trump’s second term were largely defined by ruthless spending cuts and massive layoffs under the auspices of Elon Musk and the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The department ended up wasting about 20 billion dollars in government funds, an amount that is expected to increase given the series of lawsuits, the loss of efficiency caused by mass layoffs, and the settlements and compensation granted to those affected by the cuts. Even as the war in Iran continues, members of the DOGE team are becoming dragged into statements about his role in alleged abuses of confidential data by the department.
Under the so-called Big Beautiful Bill passed last year, Congress backed Trump to make permanent his first-term tax breaks for billionaires and the ultra-rich, while taking huge amounts out of America’s social safety nets. The 12 percent cut to Medicaid spending is expected to kick 10.9 million Americans off their health insurance by 2030. Millions were kicked off food assistance. Meanwhile, the Department of Defense was given an additional $150 billion and the Department of Homeland Security was given $170 billion for border security and ICE expansion. The Department of Defense also spending tens of millions change its name to the “War Department” under Hegseth.
It has never been more obvious that the administration’s concerns about cost-cutting were a ruse to enrich the wealthy at the expense of the less fortunate. As Americans watch their tax dollars explode in the Middle East, here are some things the federal government could spend that money on:
health care
Last year, Republicans in Congress moved to allow enhanced federal subsidies for health care plans purchased through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to expire, resulting in skyrocketing premiums for millions of Americans. As a result, studies already show that even one in 10 People who previously purchased health insurance through the ACA are now uninsured.
According the Congressional Budget Office (CBO)it would have cost $350 billion to extend enhanced subsidies for a full decadeand only $60 billion for a two-year extension.
child care
In January, the Trump administration announced that it would cutting $10 billion in funding for child care and other social programs in five states: New York, California, Illinois, Minnesota and Colorado.
The Trump administration reclaimed The move was made in response to “Democrat-led states and governors.” [having] been complicit in enabling massive amounts of fraud” and would ensure “that federal taxpayer money is used for legitimate purposes. “We will make sure these states follow the law and protect taxpayers’ hard-earned money.”
Several states are suing the Trump administration over withholding the funds, and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul called the decision “vindictive.”
medical debt
The total cost of Americans’ medical debt is approximately 220 billion dollars. The money the Pentagon wants Congress to approve for the war could effectively erase all medical debt in the United States. All of this.
Foreign aid
The Trump administration has hollowed out much of the federal government’s foreign aid infrastructure by gutting USAID, a sprawling international development agency with an annual budget of about $23 billion before its demise. Trump managed to destroy one of the most effective global aid agencies ever created, whose project is estimated to cause up to 9.4 million deaths worldwide by 2030.
In June, the administration attempted to recover $8 billion in foreign aid funding, including funds for global health programs, humanitarian aid, and international civil society development. Important programs such as the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria were severely affected by funding cuts.
Food assistance
When Congress passed Trump’s so-called Big Beautiful Bill, it cut $186 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the nation’s largest food assistance program. The cuts were distributed between 2025 and 2034, that is, about 20.6 billion per year. Additionally, millions of people were kicked out of the program under new work requirements.
The current rate of spending on the Iranian offensive provided by the Pentagon indicates that in less than a month of conflict, the Trump administration has spent $13 billion more than the amount of money it “saved” in an entire year by depriving impoverished and hungry Americans of food assistance.
Public programming
Trump last July signed a bill cutting $1.1. million dollars from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which voted in January to close in the wake of the cuts. Last August, after Congress approved $500 million in cuts to public broadcasting, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) cut its budget by more than 20 percent. The legacy station, responsible for classic programming such as Mister Rogers Neighborhood, Sesame Street, and Arthur was forced to lay off more than 100 employees.
preschool development
The Trump administration cut $315 million in subsidies for preschool education that it claimed had been infiltrated by “DEI” ideology. That’s a small fraction of the amount the government spent in the first week of the war.
Help for the disabled
Last year, the Department of Health and Human Services announced it would dismantle the Administration for Community Living (ACL). The program, which helped provide transportation and nutrition assistance through programs like Meals on Wheels for seniors and disabled people, saw $2.4 billion cut from its budget.
If spending billions on a war against Iran seems absurd to Americans, Congress appears to agree. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle publicly oppose another white-check war in the Middle East and are preemptively declaring their “no” vote on the Pentagon’s request for $200 billion.
“I’m against it. I’ve already told the leadership. I’m against any war add-on. I’m so tired of spending money there,” said Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.). cnn. “I have people in Colorado who can’t afford to live. We need America First policies right now.”
Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) questioned what the administration is doing in a separate issue. Interview on CNN. “We’re talking about troops on the ground. We’re talking about that kind of widespread activity. We’re in a completely different zip code now,” he said. “They have a lot more information and a lot more explanation to give about how we’re going to pay for it and what the mission is here.”
In a social media post published earlier this week, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) list some of the things that would cost less than the $22.8 billion already spent on the war at that time. “Provide Medicaid to 6.8 million children. Build 2.6 million public housing units. Fund Head Start for 1.3 million. Hire 240,000 teachers. Cancel $20,000 in student debt for 1 million borrowers,” he wrote.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) complained that the Trump administration has the nerve to ask Congress to authorize more spending after launching the war without congressional approval. “We voted in plenary not to even publicly discuss this invasion of Iran. Now comes a price of 200 billion dollars. This is not acceptable,” he said. told reporters. “This war is extremely costly, and the president has postponed many priorities for the United States and its families to invade this country. It is going to be extremely costly, starting with American lives.”
