Ohio Capital Journal
Marty Schladen
04/14/2026
Except for Medicare, Medicaid, and interest on the national debt, defense contractors are getting the biggest share of Ohioans’ federal tax dollars, according to a new analysis.
Medicare and Medicaid provide health care to more than 144 million Americans, and paying interest on the $39 trillion national debt isn’t really optional. However, policymakers choose to spend nearly $900 billion a year on defense, and allow the Pentagon to ship 54% of that off to wealthy defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin — sometimes for weapons systems of questionable military value.
If you look at the federal tax bill of the average American, that person is giving those contractors more than he or she is paying for food and agriculture, school lunches, housing and urban development, disaster relief and national parks and the environment combined, according to the Institute for Policy Studies’ 2026 Tax Day report.
And that’s before you factor in the cost of President Donald Trump’s war with Iran or the portion of deep cuts to the social safety net that haven’t taken effect yet.
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Olivia Alperstein, a spokeswoman for the Institute for Policy Studies, said cash-strapped Americans should know where their tax dollars are going.
“As the war in Iran drives gas prices sky-high while the cost of living crisis threatens Americans’ ability to afford basic necessities here at home, the majority of ordinary Americans across the political spectrum are deeply concerned about where our tax dollars actually go and how the government will prioritize our communities’ needs,” she said in an email.
