What Would You Do with $67 Billion?

July 23, 2026

After you buy the Birkin, we mean ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

June 26, 2026

Greetings, Meteor readers,

Okay, honesty time. I was very blasé about going to see Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey.” Something about watching a three-hour road trip film with a hero who won’t ask for directions just doesn’t move me to spend $25 at AMC. And then I read this Substack. I’m now convinced that it might be worth all the hype.

Speaking of movies, on Monday at 1 p.m. EST we are gathering virtually to discuss “The Invite,” and we’d love for all of you to join. Before that, though, in today’s newsletter we’re doing our best to spend $67 billion faster than Pete Hegseth.

Cha-ching,

Shannon Melero

WHAT’S GOING ON

Money, money, money: The war with Iran is in its fifth month and, according to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, has cost the U.S. $37.5 billion so far. But that outrageous number is somehow not enough to continue a war that has no conceivable end. So Hegseth went to Congress this week with his hand out, asking for another $67 billion to keep funding the war. That’s to say nothing of the $1.5 trillion Trump requested back in April to fund the military in 2027. (Siri, play “Keep Ya Head Up.”)

During Wednesday’s hearing, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) noted the gall of asking for so much money for a war that Congress never authorized and that the president claimed had already been won. “So endless money for bombs but insufficient money for the American people, for their healthcare, their food, their housing,” she said. Gillibrand went on to list a number of other things going unfunded, like SNAP and disaster relief, all so that Trump can play a life-size game of Battleship.

But could we really solve all those problems with a meager $67 billion? Let’s check!

One year of SNAP: $124 billion

Housing crisis: $10 billion

One year of Medicare For All: several trillion dollars per year (ouch)

So while Hegseth’s $67 billion would sadly not get us Medicare For All, it would cover about half the costs of a fully funded SNAP and could certainly eliminate the housing shortage in the U.S. with many billions to spare. Here are a few other things we could spend that money on without having to purchase a single bomb.

One year of universal pre-K with $7 billion left over for teachers’ bonus checks

Nearly two years of national paid parental leave

More than thirty years of Planned Parenthood’s entire annual operation

115,517,241 abortion pills

A $151,241 check for each survivor of sexual violence in the U.S. last year.

A fully functioning FEMA ($35 billion), a federal buyout of all American medical debt ($2.2 billion), every single NWSL team ($3 billion), the Knicks ($12 billion) plus the entirety of Erling Haaland’s $500,000 Birkin collection….and there’d still be several billion left for a really nice vacation.

Dollar amounts aside, none of this covers the human cost of this war. More than 3,000 Iranians have been killed, almost half of them civilians. At least 18 servicepeople have been killed in action, according to the Pentagon, which has allegedly underreported American casualties. Instead of waiting for this number to go up, Congress should roundly reject Hegseth’s request and focus on what the rest of America actually needs. Just today, the House voted to end the war, and a Senate vote is expected to take place soon. Maybe give your senator a call?

AND:

We think of Massachusetts as one of the bluest, most abortion-friendly states in the country, but a person there who needs a late-term abortion often has to leave the state: Terminations after 24 weeks are allowed only if the life of the pregnant woman is in danger or if there is a “grave fetal diagnosis” or fetal anomaly. But that may change very soon. A law making it easier to access late-term abortion just passed the state House, with the state Senate set to vote on the measure next week. A reminder that even pro-choice states could do more to give us full control of our bodies and help pregnant people in crisis.
An independent autopsy of Nolan Wells, paid for by his family, was unable to determine a cause of death for the teen, who died earlier this month while on a trip with friends. The doctor conducting the autopsy could not fully rule out foul play, and Wells’ death is still under investigation.
In one of the largest copyright cases in U.S. history, AI has taken an L. This week, a judge ruled that AI company Anthropic will have to pay $1.5 billion to thousands of authors whose pirated work was used to train the chatbot, Claude. Take a moment to salute the work of thriller novelist Andi Bartz, who first brought the suit.
Happy WNBA All-Star Weekend to all who celebrate.
One power couple must fall for another to rise. As Brinity starts their journey, Nicolandria’s has come to an end. We’ll always have the villa.
We’re really still debating this?

MOOD BOOSTER

The news doesn’t always make it easy to find the bright spots, but they’re there! Every Thursday, one of our editors will share one small thing that’s getting them through. If you’ve got something brightening up your week, let us know and we may feature it in a future newsletter.

I find a lot of comfort in history books because I already know how everything ends. No surprises, just a deep dive on the journey from point A to point B. I recently started reading The Six Loves of James I, which details the tumultuous love life of King James I of England VI of Scotland. It may sound dry, but James was quite a horndog who famously took on male lovers and grew to have quite a bit of power in his court. Sex, politics, scandal, men’s tempers—and none of it screws with my life because it happened hundreds of years ago. Win.

—Shannon