Back in August of 2008, during the campaign, candidate Obama pushed for a $50 billion economic stimulus plan .   At the time, that seemed like a huge amount of money, and to many it looked to be an overt transfer of wealth.   Well, we now understand that $50 billion was mere pocket change.

The Senate just approved their version of the economic ‘stimulus’ bill this afternoon.   The cost of the bill is currently estimated at around $850 billion dollars, and is nearly 800 pages long. That is slightly more than one billion dollars per page.   Sounds quite harmless, doesn’t it?   We have been so conditioned over the last few months to accepting these huge numbers that the real meaning doesn’t even register.   But how many of us can even comprehend the enormity of such figures.

What does $850 billion look like? How do we understand what these numbers mean?   If we write it out, it looks like this – $850,000,000,000.   A big number, but still meaningless.    So how do we understand how much money we are talking about? Let me give you an example.

First I must remind you that these are your hard earned tax dollars that we are talking about.

I have tried many ways to demonstrate the amount of our money in this ’stimulus’ bill and have settled on one that is easily visualized and allows you to get a real grasp on what $850 billion really looks like.

The Department of the Treasury sets the thickness of all United States currency (bills) at .0043 inches .   That means that there are 232.6 bills in a one inch stack (1/.0043).

Let’s assume those are all $20 bills,
meaning the one inch stack of bills would be worth $4,660 (233 x $20)

Now it is time for us to do a little experiment.   Knowing that the one inch stack of bills is worth roughly $4,660, and without trying to calculate or think too hard, how high would the stack be to equal $850 billion dollars?   After you have made your estimate, continue reading for the answer.

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Saturday, February 7, 2009

Last night three ‘Republican’ senators broke with their colleagues to support the ’stimulus’ bill. They say they can now support the bill since it was trimmed from somewhere over $900 billion to around $800 billion.
Thanks for easing our pain!
What happened to that ban on torture?

It is very important that everyone contact these senators. This is now being touted as a ‘bipartisan’ bill, with a ‘consensus’ of the senators in support. Three ‘left of RINO’ senators does not equal bipartisan!

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