U.S. still paying Civil War beneficiaries

Nearly 150 years later, the United States is still paying relatives of Civil War soldiers.

According to Yahoo News, $40 billion is paid annually for military participants in various wars.

Ten children of veterans from the 1898 Spanish-American War are given about $50,000 a year for their patents contributions, reported MSN.com.

This particular subject is being analyzed after growing concerns about how much the war in Iraq will take a toll on our nation’s financial stability.

Apparently, the two wars that we remain in right now is nearly doubled by the cost of the Vietnam War. Battles in Iraq and Afghanistan are said to cost about $12 billion while the Vietnam War was $22 billion.

The country continues to take a severe financial blow due to various wars.

World War II costs the federal government about $5 billion annually, while the Korean War costs tax payers about $2.8 billion annually.

A situation that raises questions is the government paying over $20 million annually to 2,289 families who had a family member involved in World War I. However, 47 of these beneficiaries were not born until after the war was already over.