The National Priorities Project’s Cost of War counter, which measures the flow of money Congress appropriates for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, will reach the $1 trillion mark on May 30, the organization predicts. Meanwhile, Congress is on track to OK another estimated $37 billion for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. After that happens, NPP will update both its Cost of War amounts as well as the war-spending amounts found in its Trade Offs tool. If you haven’t seen this before, be sure to check it out. NPP makes it possible to know in an instant how much money a state or city has spent on military expenditures. For example, Des Moines taxpayers have paid $523.4 million for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars since 2001. That money, would have covered the cost of building 6,513 affordable housing units.

You can also read this OtherWords op-ed by NPP’s Chris Hellman about government spending.