What can you buy for $1.2 trillion?

A "doubling of cancer research funding, treatment for every American whose diabetes or heart disease is now going unmanaged and a global immunization campaign to save millions of children’s lives...universal preschool for every 3- and 4-year-old child across the country. The city of New Orleans could also receive a huge increase in reconstruction funds...The recommendations of the 9/11 Commission that have not been put in place — better baggage and cargo screening, stronger measures against nuclear proliferation — could be enacted. Financing for the war in Afghanistan could be increased to beat back the Taliban’s recent gains, and a peacekeeping force could put a stop to the genocide in Darfur," according to this piece by David Leonhardt in The New York Times. Leonhardt continues, "All that would be one way to spend $1.2 trillion. Here would be another: The war in Iraq." Links to the economic studies and number crunching here and here.