A “B” Here, a “B” There… How Much is That?

“House Democrats Announce $825B Economic Stimulus Package With $157B for Health Care”

That is the title of a well written and informative article from Kaiser (1/16). The title is, for the most part, self explanatory— and the funding breakdown, especially as it regards health care, is explained well enough within the article itself—at least for today. It is a two year $825 billion "stimulus package."

The breakdown alone could be the subject of at least ten posts, and will ultimately amount to what I’m sure will be countless discussions and debates in the months to come. As well it should. For the moment, however, it may be sufficient to merely read the article. And maybe attempt some perspective.

I hate to admit this, but I really don't know how much a billion is. I can grasp millions (I can just multiply the value of my house—though the multiplier has grown considerably over the last few years) but billions escape me (considering TARP, that last phrase may be more apt than I am comfortable with). But…

A billion is a thousand million. It is written 1,000,000,000.

I do not find that particularly helpful, but it’s a start.

Years ago, the United States produced $1000 bills; Grover Cleveland graces the front of them and there are said to be a number of them still in existence. It is also said that if you tightly stacked 1 billion dollars in clean crisp thousand dollar bills and piled them—they would rise 63 miles into the air. If you did the same for $825 billion the stack would rise 51,975 miles into the air. Commercial jets generally fly at around 7.7 miles in the air. The circumference of the earth at the equator is roughly 24,901 miles—that’s twice around and then some. And remember, these are thousand dollar bills.

It is estimated that to count from one to a billion would take you 95 years. To count to 825 billion would take you at least 78,375 years. It will not take us nearly as long to spend it.

And by the way, 825 billion is just 175 billion short of a trillion. A trillion is a thousand billion, or a million million, and is written 1,000,000,000,000.

And yes, I find this even less helpful. But my guess is, before the two years are up, we'll have to figure out what "a trillion" is as well.