Reality Check...

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"The United States will be paying the price of Iraq for decades to come. The price tag will be all the greater because we tried to ignore the laws of economics -- and the cost will grow the longer we remain."

Linda J. Bilmes (teaches at Harvard University) and Joseph E. Stiglitz (professor at Columbia University), writing in the Washington Post.

National Defense Spending as a Percentage of GDP

Source: The Heritage Foundation, based on data from the White House Office of Management and Budget.

• National defense spending as a percentage of total federal outlays in 1990: 23.9%.
• National defense spending as a percentage of total federal outlays in 2007: 20.2%.

Source: Calculated from data in Table 455 of the US Statistical Abstract.

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