The government could have spent $1.7 million on every single U.S. highway bridge in the United States (the average inspection and maintenance program costs anywhere from $300,000 to $21 million per bridge).
...Or paid for every single enrolled college student in the U.S. to go to school... for 8 years.
...Or saved it all up to bail out 40 banks the size of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
...Or paid the current U.S. average Foreign Aid budget for 47.2 years.
...Or built 15-20 new international airports the size of Denver International.
...Or paid the entire population of my state (Washington) $70,000 a year – for 2.5 years.
...Or purchased 3,188,775.5 homes at the U.S. median home cost of $313,600 (there have been about 7% increases in foreclosures in 2008 so far).
In order to pay for the debt we are stacking up,
Hollywood could hold a bakesale of sorts -- filming 542.5 blockbusters with a minimum gross equal to that of Titanic.
...Or, every man, woman, and child in the world could give the U.S. government $547.