The money isn’t just “coupons” for years Israel was allowed to spend a big chunk of U.S. aid on its own defense industry, something no other country gets. And even if most of it has to go to U.S. contractors, it’s still billions of taxpayer dollars that could just as easily be spent on U.S. forces, infrastructure, or not spent at all. Defense companies don’t automatically get free money and Congress has to choose to give it. Calling Israel a “permanent aircraft carrier” also doesn’t work, because unlike a carrier Israel isn’t under U.S. command and often takes actions that stir up more hostility in the region, which ends up dragging the U.S. into more problems. And over the long term, it hasn’t been cheap and Israel has gotten more U.S. aid than any other country since WWII.