More than three decades ago, Tupac Shakur rapped about a rain that would “never let up.” For millions of Americans in 2026, the rain has become a torrential downpour.
The Trump administration has led us into a war in Iran, and the munitions used in just the first two days of the conflict alone cost taxpayers $5.6 billion. That’s a staggering amount when juxtaposed against legislation passed last year that makes it harder for families to get food assistance.
The war has triggered a rapid increase in gas prices, and President Donald Trump’s tariffs have contributed to sticker shock in the grocery aisle.
But perhaps the clearest sign of this administration’s perverse priorities is found in the latest West Health-Gallup Affordability Index. The data confirms the lasting truth of a line from Tupac’s anthem “Keep Ya Head Up”: “They got money for wars, but can’t feed the poor.”
While billions of tax dollars are allocated to the new conflict in the Middle East, the domestic situation is in a crisis for millions of households.
About one-third of Americans — roughly 82 million people — say they have had to make financial sacrifices to cover health care costs. This isn’t just about cutting back on a morning latte or a Netflix subscription; it’s about families skipping meals to afford medication or stretching out their prescriptions to make their medicine last longer.
Not surprisingly, the burden falls most heavily on those without insurance, with 62 percent of Americans making financial trade-offs. Even among the insured, nearly 30 percent reported making similar sacrifices.
More than half of adults living in households earning less than $24,000 report making cuts to pay for health care or medicine. Even in households earning $240,000 or more, about 1.6 million Americans are now forced to make financial trade-offs to cover their medical bills. While the impact is most severe for low-income households, these rising costs are climbing high enough to affect families at nearly every income level.
The high cost of health care is causing people to delay major life events, according to a second survey by West Health and Gallup. Nearly 1 in 10 has postponed retirement, and others have delayed a surgical or medical treatment (26 percent), deferred buying a home (14 percent), delayed a job change (18 percent) or put off having or adopting a child (6 percent).
West Health and Gallup data show that those in poor health are significantly more likely to sacrifice basic needs to cover their medical costs.
It’s a cruel catch-22: Being sick is expensive, and those costs force you to skip the very care you need to get better.
And while millions are caught in this hopeless cycle, the money we’re told isn’t available for health care is being poured by the billions into the war in Iran.
The trade-offs the administration is making are daunting. A single Tomahawk missile costs enough to cover the annual Medicaid expenses of 775 children or provide school lunches for 3,600 more, according to datafrom the Center for American Progress, a prominent left-leaning think tank.
The taxpayer bill for Operation Epic Fury in its early days could fund benefits for more than 2 million Americans for a full year through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
To be sure, the Iranian regime’s record of state-sponsored terrorism is indefensible, but as the costs of this new conflict increase, the reality remains that America’s most vulnerable families are the ones paying the price for this “war of choice.”
This isn’t just passive neglect. It is a policy of active withdrawal. Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the administration has systematically dismantled the protections meant to catch working-class families before they fall financially.
In a 1992 interview with MTV News, Tupac poetically and passionately discussed wealth inequality and the state of American society. He cited Donald Trump, then a New York real estate developer, as emblematic of a “gimme, gimme, gimme” culture, and he called for a more empathic approach to helping those in need.
How do we live in a world where people can earn billions, and “then there’s people starving,” he railed.
When Tupac released “Keep Ya Head Up” the next year, the national conversation around health care centered on a familiar crisis: affordability. Decades later, the gap has only widened. A study from Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy highlighted a staggering disconnect between the rising cost of health insurance and employee earnings.
Between 1999 and 2024, the cost of health insurance increased at three times the rate of workers’ earnings. While wages rose by 119 percent, workers’ contributions to family health insurance premiums jumped by 308 percent, according to the 2025 Rice study.
Total premiums rose by 342 percent over this period, far outstripping the overall inflation rate of 64 percent.
As the latest research from Rice University confirms, the cost of employer-provided insurance has tripled relative to people’s paychecks since Tupac rapped about the misplaced priorities around poorer Americans.
It is striking, and frankly indefensible, that the current administration can find billions for combat but won’t adequately protect people from having to choose between their medication and enough food to feed their family.
While 82 million Americans are weighing whether to go to the doctor or pay for medication, the national bank account has seemingly issued a blank check to fund a conflict half a world away.
Helping people who are struggling, Tupac said during that MTV interview, “just takes to be revolutionary, and it takes to do something out of the ordinary.”
Perhaps the most “revolutionary” thing the U.S. can do is prioritize the physical and financial health of its people over the hubris of a new war. This administration is still proving the poet right: “You know, it’s funny when it rains it pours/ They got money for wars, but can’t feed the poor.”
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