Covid Relief Bigger Than World War II Budget? Sounds Right.

Covid Relief Bigger Than World War II Budget? Sounds Right.

President Joe Biden signed a $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief bill on Thursday that brings total federal spending to combat the pandemic over the last year to about $6 trillion. He also plans to tee up a huge infrastructure outlay of about $4 trillion over the next 10 years on roads, bridges, tunnels, energy grids, strategic industries and other needs.

That's a lot of money. And it's raised the hackles of Biden's critics. They're concerned that those trillions amount to dangerous overreach, will saddle the government with gargantuan, unmanageable debt and will eventually produce rampant inflation. Just look, they say: It's more than the US government spent fighting World War II!

Indeed it is. In inflation-adjusted dollars, the US spent about $4.1 trillion waging World War II. It also spent more than $300 billion each on World War I and the Korean War, and $738 billion on the Vietnam War. The bill for the wars the US has waged in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, is $2.3 trillion and counting. All told, the US has spent about $7.9 trillion on warfare since World War I.

Well, we're at war again, as Biden's predecessor and others have routinely