I know you're just using it as comparison, but didn't the Iraq War start in 2003? And if this[1] is to be believed, the total cost of the war is ranging around $3.2-4 trillion. That's thirteen and a third years of your $300 billion scenario.

And it's not like that $300 billion just disappears into a black hole. Because poor people need it to live they are spending it immediately, which multiplies out across the economy, certainly more so than a war does. And I'm not even counting the human life cost of war. So yes, just giving people $10K a year isn't that bad considering what we have done.

I just love the thinking though: "we've spent all this money to kill people for no reason and now you expect us to feed Americans?!?!"

[1] http://costsofwar.org/