In 2006: the USA netted 13.13 trillion dollars in GDP, spent 410.8 billion on the Department of Defense, 56.5 billion in education, 21.1 billion in agriculture, and 34.1 billion in housing and urban development. The growth in discretionary budget quoted 843.0 billion is spending alone, and this is just a small fraction of what our government spent in 2006.

The point I'm trying to make is yes, a billion dollars is an unfathomable amount of money for an individual to spend. But to a government in a nation the size of ours, a billion is pocket change.