> as Forbes' Erik Kain points out — that state and local governments generally foot the bill when it comes to education spending in America. If you factor those contributions in, the US spent about $880 billion on education in 2011, compared to $966 billion total on defense.

Maybe 2011 was just a really bad year for education, but I think you could stand to add citations on what seems like a pretty eyebrow-raising claim, that each of these things blanket "get more money" than the military -- let alone a whole discussion of the spending per user capita on these things and the value they have to society.

Also, the James Web telescope, at $10BB, has been in development for 20+ years, so that's ~$1B/year or less in total expenditures, on a program that's the poster child for massive cost overruns and bungling. If it had been presented as $10B originally, especially as an instantaneous cost, it likely would never have happened.

1 - https://www.businessinsider.com/education-military-spending-...