The People's Ledger
Opinion · Extra, extra, read all about it · Story 2 of 2Oct. 24, 2026
They Always Find the Money for War
Ask for a new school and you'll hear "there's no money." Last year the world's governments found $2,887 billion for their militaries.
On April 27, 2026, SIPRI published its yearly count: the world spent $2,887 billion on militaries in 2025, $352 for every person on Earth and 41% more than in 2016. The U.S. spent $954 billion, a third of the total and more than the next six countries combined.
“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.”
And: “The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities.” Dwight D. Eisenhower, a five-star general and Republican president, April 16, 1953.
They'll tell you there's no money. No money for teachers. No money for the bridge you drive over every morning. But when it's time for war, nobody asks how we'll pay for it. We just borrow it. The wars after 9/11 ran up $1.09 trillion in interest alone. That's the part nobody campaigns on. I'm not saying we don't need a military. I'm saying we get to ask what we're buying… and what we gave up to buy it.
"Weakness invites war." Deterrence that works is invisible: the war that didn't happen never shows up on a receipt. Washington already spends more on Medicare and Medicaid ($1.79T) than on defense ($916B, CBO FY2026). Cut the Pentagon tomorrow and the savings might just shrink the deficit.
Follow the moneyOpportunity costDeficitInterestThe War BillWhat else could it buy?The $40 trillion question
Sources: SIPRI fact sheet, April 2026 · Eisenhower, "The Chance for Peace," April 16, 1953 (Eisenhower Library) · Costs of War, Sept. 1, 2021 · CBO, Oct. 8, 2026. Opinion is labeled; the facts are sourced.