Officials and economists disagree on what counts. We show every honest framing — from the Pentagon's own ledger to the long-run economic projection — and end with what you feel at the pump. Each card prints its denominator: voter cards divide by the 156.3M who showed up in 2024 (the vote is the lever of consent); the household card matches Brown University's own published figure; the burn rate is live. Screenshot or tap the share button on any card.
$29 billion is the Pentagon's disclosed cost for the first 74 days alone. For context, here's what that money funds elsewhere in the federal budget — annually.
156.3 million Americans cast a ballot in the 2024 presidential election — the second-highest turnout in U.S. history. We use this denominator because the vote, more than the tax return, is the lever of democratic consent. Congress hasn't authorized this war (the War Powers Resolution challenges in both chambers failed). The math here is the receipt voters got without a vote.
The household card (#05) uses ~131 million U.S. households as the denominator, matching Brown University Watson Institute's own published per-household figure. Their tracker compares current gasoline and diesel prices against a no-war baseline using AAA price data and EIA / Census household data. The pump card (#04) shows the per-gallon delta directly — what every fill-up costs you on top of pre-war prices.
The hero counter is anchored to the Pentagon's three public disclosures: $11.3B (first 6 days), $25B (Apr 28 testimony), $29B (May 12 testimony). Between disclosures we tick at the back-calculated daily rate: $1.88B/day in the opening strikes, $259M/day during sustained operations, $286M/day in the current phase. The counter continues at the latest disclosed rate until the Pentagon updates again.
Khanna and Bilmes figures are static — we update them only when the underlying source publishes a new estimate. Faking live updates on projections erodes trust. Bilmes' wartime estimates have historically proven low: her 2008 Iraq projection was $3 trillion; the actual figure now exceeds $2T and rising. The $1T Iran figure is her current published estimate, not her ceiling.