It’s debt by a thousand cuts. Congress doesn’t want to know because most states have lucrative defense contractors helping prop up their economy.
DoD contract obligations, payroll spending, and grant awards in the 50 states and the District of Columbia totaled $558.7 billion, which is 2.2 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. If the total spending were divided across every U.S. resident, it would amount to $1,679 per U.S. citizen. Of those funds, $389.5 billion (70 percent) were spent on contracts for products and services, $159.4 billion (28 percent) paid the salaries of DoD personnel, and $9.7 billion (2 percent) were awarded as grants.
Virginia, Texas, and California topped the list of recipients for overall defense spending. However, Virginia, Hawaii, and Connecticut ranked highest when considering defense spending relative to their respective state GDPs.
The top ten states for total Defense spending in Fiscal Year 2022 were:
Rank
State
Defense Spending (billions)
1
Virginia
$62.7
2
Texas
$58.0
3
California
$56.2
4
Florida
$30.2
5
New York
$28.1
6
Maryland
$26.4
7
Connecticut
$22.3
8
Pennsylvania
$17.9
9
Massachusetts
$15.2
10
Arizona
$15.0
Texas, Connecticut, and North Carolina had the largest overall increases in DoD spending from Fiscal Year 2021 to 2022.