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<P><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman"><B>For Immediate Release, May 28,
2010</B></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman">Contact: Christopher Hellman,
Communications Liaison, 413.584.9556 (o); 703.945.3950, or</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman">Jo Comerford, Executive Director,
413.584.9556 (o); 413.559.1649 (c)</FONT> <BR> </P>
<P align=center><FONT size=5 face="Times New Roman"><B>Crossing the $1 Trillion
<I>Cost Of War</I> Line</B></FONT></P>
<P align=center><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman">NPP’s Cost of War counter to
hit $1 trillion on May 30, 2010</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman">NORTHAMPTON, MA -- On May 30, 2010, at
10:06am, the National Priorities Project <I>Cost of War</I> counter – designed
to count the total money appropriated for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars – will
reach the $1 trillion mark.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman">To date $747.3 billion have been
appropriated for the U.S. war in Iraq and $299 billion for the war in
Afghanistan.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman">The pending supplemental making its way
through Congress will add an estimated $37 billion to the current $136.8 billion
total spending for the current fiscal year, ending September 30.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman"><B>What Can You Get For $1
Trillion?</B></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman"><B>Federal Funding For Higher Education
--</B> $1 trillion would give the maximum Pell Grant award ($5,500) to all 19
million U.S. college and university students for the next 9 years.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman"><B>For $1 trillion, you could
provide:</B></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman">294,734,961 people with health care for
one year, or</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman">21,598,789 public safety officers for one
year, or</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman">17,149,392 music and arts teachers for
one year, or</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman">7,779,092 affordable housing units, or
</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman">440,762,472 children with health care for
one year, or</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman">137,233,969 head start places for
children for one year, or</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman">16,427,497 elementary school teachers for
one year, or</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman">1,035,282,468 homes with renewable
electricity for one year </FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman"><B>In your community:</B></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman">Taxpayers in <B><I>Natick, Massachusetts
</I></B>will pay $206.9 million for total Iraq and Afghanistan war spending
since 2001. For that amount, instead of implementing a proposed 4 percent cut
for Natick’s libraries in 2011, the town could double its total current library
budget, and pay for it for 56 years.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman">Taxpayers in the <B><I>Borough of
Brooklyn, New York</I></B> will pay $9 billion for total Iraq and Afghanistan
war spending since 2001. That’s enough to supply renewable electricity to every
household in Brooklyn for 19 years.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman">As college and university tuitions grow,
community colleges are increasingly popular sources of affordable education. At
<B><I>Greenfield Community College</I></B> in Massachusetts, for the cost of the
Afghanistan war "surge" (est. <B>$37 billion</B>) you could cover all tuition
and fees for all full- and part-time (half-time) students for the next 762
semesters (381 years).</FONT> <BR> </P>
<P><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman"><B>WHAT DOES $1 TRILLION LOOK
LIKE?</B></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman">$1,000,000,000,000 (</FONT><FONT size=3
face="Times New Roman">“</FONT><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman">1</FONT><FONT
size=3 face="Times New Roman">”</FONT><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman"> and
twelve zeros)</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman">If you earned $1 million a year, it would
take you 1 million years to earn $1 trillion.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman"><B>In Dollar Bills:</B></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman">If you converted $1 trillion into one
dollar bills, and laid them end to end, it would reach 98 million miles. That's
4,000 times around the Earth. Its 205 trips to the Moon. And back. It's more
than the distance to the Sun.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman"><B>In Silver Dollars:</B></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman">If someone handed you a silver dollar
every second, it would take almost 32,000 years for them to hand you $1
trillion. Not that you could hold them – they'd weigh nearly 9 million
tons.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman"><B>About NPP’s <I>Cost of War</I>
Counters</B></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman">NPP’s <I>Cost of War</I> counters provide
information on the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for each of the 50
states.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman">The counters also provide cost amounts
and “trade-off” data for hundreds of U.S. cities and towns.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman">To see NPP’s <I>Cost of War</I> counters
and our <I>Notes & Sources,</I> visit <A
href="http://civicrm.nationalpriorities.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=173532&qid=470020"
target=_blank>http://www.nationalpriorities.<WBR>org/costofwar_home</WBR></A></FONT></P>
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<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><FONT size=2 face="Times New Roman"><I>The
National Priorities Project (NPP) is a 501(c)(3) research organization that
analyzes and clarifies federal data so that people can understand and influence
how their tax dollars are spent. Located in Northampton, MA, since 1983,
NPP focuses on the impact of federal spending and other policies at the
national, state, congressional district and local levels. For more
information, visit <A
href="http://civicrm.nationalpriorities.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=173533&qid=470020"
target=_blank>http://www.nationalpriorities.<WBR>org</WBR></A>.</I></FONT></P><WBR><WBR><WBR><WBR><WBR><BR><WBR><WBR><WBR><WBR><WBR>
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<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><FONT size=2 face="Times New Roman">###</FONT></P>
<P> </P>
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