Direct costs are ~$113B as of June 16th, 2026 (per the Pentagon's briefing to Congress, counter stopped on that date):

https://iran-cost-ticker.com/

Iran War Cost Tracker - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47237080 - March 2026 (446 comments)

Pentagon Tells Congress First Week of Iran War Cost More Than $11.3 Billion - https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/11/world/middleeast/iran-war... | https://archive.today/Q4oDX - March 11th, 2026

Consumer energy excess cost burden is ~$76B as of this comment (indirect regressive consumer tax):

https://iranwarcost.watson.brown.edu/

> Meanwhile, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security each grew around $100 billion in the last year.

While we should be efficient with these programs, that's what government is for, and what I pay US federal taxes for: to take care of my fellow citizens. Not to bomb innocent people with overpriced military industrial complex hardware on the other side of the world for illegitimate reasons (F-35 program costs now exceed $2T, for example).

https://usafacts.org/government-spending/

Pentagon Fails Eighth Audit, Eyes 2028 Turnaround - https://www.military.com/feature/2025/12/24/pentagon-fails-e... - December 24th, 2025

Annual net interest on debt is ~$900B/year, as of this comment; we could replace Medicare and Medicaid with Medicare for All for ~$2T/year, which would contribute to constraining healthcare spending increases: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48666290. It is an active choice to continue to operate the entire system inefficiently; we could make other, better choices. The inefficiency and debt growth is a result of operating the system for entrenched interests to profit off of the dysfunction.