Twelve billion dollars. Gone. Not over a decade. Not over a year. In a single night.
That is what it cost when Israel launched roughly 1,000 American-built THAAD-class interceptors during a massive missile barrage. Each interceptor costs about $12.6 million. Multiply it out. That is $12.6 billion worth of high-tech weaponry evaporated in one evening.
Not a penny went to healthcare. Not a dime went to infrastructure. It all went into the sky.
THAAD stands for Terminal High Altitude Area Defense. It is not a generic missile. It is one of the most advanced anti-missile systems ever produced. It uses radar to track threats and kinetic energy to destroy them in mid-flight. Each launch is a one-time event. No retrieval. No reuse. Just gone.
These are not theoretical numbers. These were real launches, real intercepts, real costs. Israel faced a heavy coordinated aerial attack and responded with a relentless wall of American-funded interceptors. Every single one was destroyed or spent.
The THAAD system was developed to protect American interests. It was meant to be a last line of defense against catastrophic attacks. But here it was, used at full capacity in a foreign conflict that the average American had no say in and no vote on. And it was your money that paid for it.
The United States provides Israel with about $3.8 billion per year in military assistance. But that figure is only the surface. There are emergency allocations, backdoor deals, and real-time logistical support that are never included in public summaries. This one night of warfare cost the U.S. taxpayer the equivalent of more than three full years of official aid.
Now look at what Israel provides its own citizens. Universal healthcare. It is guaranteed. Comprehensive. Funded and managed with national support. They do not go bankrupt after a car accident. They do not crowdsource insulin. They do not spend hours on hold with insurance companies that deny coverage after the fact.
Meanwhile, in the United States, over 25 million people have no health insurance. Tens of millions more carry insurance with deductibles so high it may as well not exist. Americans ration medication. They skip procedures. They delay care. Some die waiting.
But we had $12.6 billion available. Immediately. For missiles.
There was no debate. No vote. No prime-time speech. It happened automatically. That is how federal priorities work. You always find the money for what matters most.
And clearly, what matters most is not your healthcare. It is not your school. It is not your job or your future. It is missile defense for a foreign state with a stronger safety net than your own.
This is not about politics. This is about allocation. About clarity. About who gets what when the numbers come in and the clock starts ticking.
We know where the money went. And it did not come back.