Here’s an interesting factoid from a new white paper from the Consumer Federation of California.  With the nearly $38 billion California taxpayers have spent on the war in Afghanistan since 2001, we could have paid for any one of the following:

•    15.6 million people with health care;

•    5.7 million scholarships and 7 million Pell Grants for university students;

•    4.5 million Head Start placements for children;

•    500,000 new elementary school teachers;

•    676,649 public safety officers;

•    535,058 music and arts teachers;

•    113,373 affordable housing units;

•    And 67.4 million homes with renewable electricity.

As Californians watch our utility rates spike, our library hours get cut back, our fire stations get pared down, our potholes mushroom and our cities’ bond ratings tank, we might pause to ponder the price of single predator drone in Afghanistan: $4.5 million.  That would fill a lot of potholes.