War, The Economy and The Health of our Communities hosted by East Bay Citizens for Peace April, 2011

Direct Costs of War: Iraq War: $790 billion, as of March 2011 $9 billion per month average cost $3.12 billion, cost to RI Afghanistan War: $386 billion, as of March 2011 $1.55 billion, cost to RI Total: $1.12 trillion, as of March 2011 $4.67 billion, cost to RI Source: National Priorities Project, Cost of War project,

Rhode Island’s Economy $47 billion, GDP in 2009 or $41,000 per person $54,562 median household income in ,424 households $7.66 billion, budget of RI State Government 2012 $3.17 billion from general revenue $2.55 billion from federal funds $1.72 billion from other sources $209.5 million from restricted or dedicated fee funds $295 million projected deficit

US Federal Budget 2010 $3.55 trillion $2 trillion mandatory $1.55 trillion discretionary

US Federal Budget Exercise

A 25 Percent Solution: Withdraw in a timely fashion from Iraq = $105 billion in year one Withdraw from Afghanistan = 25 billion Eliminate wasteful weapons systems = 33 billion Reduce active nuclear warheads = 16 billion Close half of US overseas military bases = 51 billion Trim unused air wings and sea forces = 5 billion Eliminated waste in procurement and operations = 20 billion Total: $255 billion, or 25 percent of Federal Budget’s discretionary spending

$1 billion in Federal spending creates 8,555 jobs for defense 17,687 jobs for education and 19,795 for mass transit. Source: Robert Pollin and Heidi Garrett-Peltier, (2007) The U.S. Employment Effects of Military and Domestic Spending Priorities. Amherst: University of Massachusetts.

Some resources: New Priorities Network: Percent Solution: Friends Committee on National Legislation, Rebalancing Our Nation’s Checkbook