Defense spending isn’t as big of a driver for the U.S. economy as it was a few years ago, when U.S. troops were still engaged in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But $600 billion a year is still a lot of money, and defense spending remains a major contributor to the economies of some states, such as Virginia and Hawaii. Plus, the Department of Defense funds a lot of research and development, much of which has led to technologies with widespread commercial applications, such as lasers and the Internet.
