Notes and Sources

These numbers are based on an analysis of legislation in which Congress has allocated money for war and research by the Congressional Research Service (latest report) which has access to Department of Defense financial reports. An article offered by the Strauss Military Reform Project of the Center for Defense Information offers greater insight into the problems of truly knowing how much has been spent on the Iraq War or other military operations.

During the Bush administration, the majority of war funding was allocated through emergency supplementals. Beginning with the FY2010 budget, most of the war funding was included in the core budget appropriations process. In July 2010, Congress passed additional supplemental appropriations to fund the 30,000 troop surge in Afghanistan announced by President Obama in December 2009.

About the Fiscal Year 2012 Budget Process

Congress failed to enact any of the 12 annual appropriations bills for FY2012 prior to the end of FY2011 on September 30, 2011. Instead, most government funding was provided through a series of Continuing Resolutions (see below) until December 17, 2011, when Congress enacted the Fiscal Year 2012 Final Consolidated Appropriations Act. The Act included the FY2012 Defense Department appropriations bill and eight other appropriations bills. It also included the Pentagon’s funding for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, plus other war-related funding allocated in other FY2012 appropriations – Homeland Security, Military Construction & Veterans Affairs, and the Department of State & Foreign Operations budgets.

A continuing resolution is a temporary spending measure enacted when Congress and the President fail to reach agreement on a federal agency's spending package before the end of the fiscal year. A continuing resolution funds these agencies at the previously appropriated levels.


About This Cost of War Update

On December 15, 2011 Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta presided over the “U.S. Forces in Iraq End of Mission Ceremony” in Baghdad, signaling the final withdrawal of U.S. combat forces from Iraq. Yet while funding for Iraq continues to decline – $65.1 billion in FY2010, $47.4 billion in FY2011, and only $10.1 billion in FY2012 – the final withdrawal of U.S. combat forces from Iraq does not mean an instant end to U.S. funding. And while we are still supporting the Administration's "surge" of forces in Afghanistan, troop levels there are also down slightly. The FY2012 allocation for Afghanistan is $111.1 billion, less than 10 percent below the FY2011 level of $122 billion. In addition, the Defense Department has limited authority to transfer funds between Pentagon accounts, so it is possible that over the course of the fiscal year an additional funding shift toward Afghanistan will occur.


About NPP’s “Cost of War” Counters

Prior to enactment of the Fiscal Year 2012 Final Consolidated Appropriations Act, NPP’s “Cost of War” counters were using FY2011 spending figures for FY2012, which began on October 1, 2011. This was due to the fact that no new FY2012 appropriations had yet been enacted, and government operations for most agencies, including the Defense Department and the other agencies supporting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, were operating at FY2011 levels (see “continuing resolution” above). At $169 billion annually, these figures were higher than the actual FY2012 appropriations that were finally enacted ($121 billion). As a result, when NPP recalibrated our three “Cost of War” counters, the totals shown to date “rolled back” slightly to reflect the new, lower funding levels.

Please note that the Department of Defense was also permitted by legislation to transfer funds amongst operations (peacetime, Afghanistan, etc.) and so estimating war costs based on Congressional legislation is not enough.

State and City Calculations

We calculated each state's share of taxes paid into federal funds revenues (based on IRS data). This includes individual income taxes, corporate income taxes, excise, gift and estate taxes. Each state's share of taxes was then multiplied by the total amount of the war.

The city and county calculations are based on the population and median household income of the city relative to the state.