Way To Go

The U. S. Congress sets a federal budget every year in the trillions of dollars.  Few people know how much money that is so here is a breakdown of the 2011 budget:

 U.S. income:            $2,170,000,000,000
 Federal budget:       $3,820,000,000,000
 New debt:                 $1,650,000,000,000
 National debt:        $14,271,000,000,000
 Recent budget cut:       $ 38,500,000,000      (about 1 percent of the budget)

It's easy to get lost with the big numbers so let's remove eight zeros from these numbers and pretend this is the household budget for the fictitious Jones family.
 Total Jones family income                                     $21,700

Amount of money the Jones family spent:             $38,200
Amount of new debt added to the credit card:     $16,500
Outstanding balance on the credit card:             $142,710
Amount cut from the budget:                                       $385

Hope that this helps put all of the White House and Congress' hard work into perspective.