But it makes them much worse by diverting the nation’s attention and resources. Homeland security costs are the most direct way that this war hurts state and local budgets. In New York City, the an­ titerrorist program Operation Atlas costs an estimated $700 million a year. The mayor asked Congress to pay—it would come to fifty-five cents a month per household nationally—but Congress offered only $200 million. The rest, half a billion dol­ lars, comes out of the New York City budget, one way or another.

New Jersey governor James McGreevey (a Democ­ rat) used that trick in 2003 after cutting the budget by $3 bil­ lion, raising corporate taxes by $1 billion, and draining the state tobacco settlement money and “every state fund with a positive balance,” to quote the Washington Post. To get the last needed reduction of $300 million, he ordered a June payment to New Jersey’s school districts to be shifted to July 1, the new fiscal year. But sixty-six districts could not make contractually required payments to teachers in June without the state money.

In Massachusetts and Florida, Medicaid stopped pay­ ing for eyeglasses, hearing aids, and artificial limbs. Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh announced that it expected to lose nearly $7 million from Medicaid budget cuts approved by the Pennsylvania legislature in 2003 as part of a package of $250 million in health care cuts. 17 Ronnie Gonzalez of Jersey City, New Jersey, lost his health benefits after being laid off from the electronics retailer The Wiz in 2002. The state insurance plan had just been discontin­ ued, and the next year his unemployment compensation ran out.