The US Will Spend $634 Billion on Nuclear Weapons in the Next Decade

According to a new Congressional Budget Office report, we're set to spend well over a half a trillion dollars over the next decade on nuclear weapons. Yet we're somehow told that Medicare for All is too expensive.

The W76-2 warhead is a low-yield nuclear missile that was developed under the Trump administration in recent years. (Ronald Gutridge / US Navy)


As Capitol Hill lawmakers continue to insist that initiatives like Medicare for All are too expensive, a new congressional report shows that the United States government is on a path to spend more than a half-trillion dollars on nuclear weapons in just the next decade. The report emerges at the same time a separate analysis shows that a handful of top executives at defense contractors are being wildly enriched by a Pentagon spending spree.

The first report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) finds that the federal government is on track to spend $634 billion over the next decade to maintain its nuclear forces. Almost two-thirds of those costs are for the Department of Defense, mostly to maintain ballistic missile submarines and intercontinental ballistic missiles. About one-third is for the Department of Energy.

For comparison that is:

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