CCAG Reveals Iraq War's Cost to Connecticut

Date: 
August 15, 2007
Contact: 
Tom Swan
Telephone: 
(860) 233-2181


New data shows new investments in CT health care, education, job training, other priorities are a tiny fraction of Iraq War spending every month

The Connecticut Citizen Action Group (CCAG) today released a report with new data revealing the cost of the Iraq War to CT. CT taxpayers have spent $11.1 billion of the $456 billion in total funding for the Iraq war.

The report, titled “Getting U.S. Back on Track” and authored by the USAction Education Fund, illustrates, how CT's cost of war could have provided health insurance for more children, funded Head Start and provided more college scholarships here in CT.

The report also finds that the modest new investments in neglected priorities such as health care and education to be debated this fall between Congress and President Bush would amount to a fraction of what is spent every month on the war.

“This data highlights how the Bush administration’s upside-down priorities have shortchanged CT families and communities,” said CCAG Director, Tom Swan. “For a fraction of what CT taxpayers have spent in Iraq, we could be addressing neglected priorities like providing more health care and college scholarships for families in CT.”
  • health care for 3.8 million adults – almost 12 times more than the 319,160 uninsured adults in Connecticut
  • health care for 4.4 million children – 61 times more than the 71,123 kids without health care
  • full funding for Head Start, which has been cut by 7.4 percent since 2001

GETTING U.S. BACK ON TRACK The new Congress is finally working to get America back on track by reversing years of upside-down priorities in Washington. Congress is working to pass modest increases in funding for children’s health care, job training, education and other priorities, but President Bush threatens to veto legislation with any increases beyond his budget proposal, which shortchanged these programs to pay for tax breaks for millionaires and the endless war in Iraq.

Amazingly, Bush administration officials and Republican leaders have even suggested they would shut down the government before passing modest increases in funding for these vital priorities. Take a look at the small boosts in funding – representing just a fraction of the $10 billion U.S. taxpayers are spending in Iraq every month – that are leading to Republican threats to shut down our government:
  • Cost of restoring Connecticut job training funds ($9.3 million) = about 41 minutes of Iraq war spending
  • Cost of fully funding U.S. job training ($600 million) = about 44 hours of Iraq war spending
  • Cost of restoring Connecticut child care funds ($3.5 million) = about 15 minutes of Iraq war spending
  • Cost of restoring Connecticut child support funding ($5.4 million) = about 24 minutes of Iraq war spending
  • Cost of restoring Connecticut K-12 education funding ($34.1 million) = about 2 hours 29 minutes of Iraq war spending


“It is unconscionable for President Bush and GOP leaders to threaten to shut down the government over a fraction of what they are spending on the endless war in Iraq,” said Swan. “Rep. Chris Shays needs to decide who side he's on, Presidented Bush's or the state of CT."

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USAction and our affiliates in 24 states connect issues to elections and policy to politics. We seek to take our democracy back from the corporate elite and the well-heeled special interests that dominate the political process today – because we believe that government has a critical role to play in ensuring liberty and justice for all. CCAG is USAction’s CT's affiliate.

Read the report: Getting US Back on Track... (pdf)

Listen: CCAG's Tom Swan and WTIC's Colin McEnroe discuss the Cost of War (mp3)