Over the weekend, Donald Trump kicked off a deeply unpopular war with Iran. Not only have Trump’s strikes cost American taxpayers more than $5 billion so far, but new reports suggest that the Pentagon is working up a supplemental budget request of around $50 billion to replace weapons being rapidly depleted in the Middle East. Trump and his Republican allies in Congress were all-too-eager to cut Medicaid, public schools, food assistance, and more to enrich themselves and their powerful friends. Instead of bankrolling yet another forever war overseas, working Americans could be getting so much more. Read more about what we could be spending $50 billion on instead of Trump’s war with Iran:
Trump’s Planned $50 Billion Supplemental Could:
- Pay for 12.8 billion school lunches, fully funding the program for more than two years.
- Cover food assistance for 11 million households for a year.
- Repair 27,725 aging bridges across the U.S.
- Cover the $114,975 average annual cost of nursing home care for over 434,000 seniors for a year.
- Extend ACA tax credits that 22 million Americans rely on for over a year.
- Restore almost a year of the devastating Medicaid cuts that threaten care for millions from Trump’s Big, Ugly Bill.
- Fund the entire LIHEAP home heating and cooling cost assistance program for millions of Americans for 12 years.
- Fund all of Head Start for four years giving hundreds of thousands of kids high quality early childhood education.
- Pay the salaries of nearly 700,000 teachers.
- Replace every lead pipe in the U.S. drinking water supply.
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In FY 2025, schools participating in the national school lunch program served 4.8 billion lunches at a program cost of $18.8 billion — around $3.92 per lunch.