Just how big is this stimulus, anyway?

My friend Flip Pidot at Suitably Flip has an excellent graphical representation of the current stimulus package, with projected interest, in comparison to previous government programs.  Flip gives the figures in 2008 dollars, which makes it possible to compare, say, the Louisiana Purchase from 1803 to the New Deal.  I won’t copy the graphic here, because I want you to see it for yourself at Flip’s, but it’s an immediately impressive way to see the scope of the sinkhole the Democrats propose.

I will share the numbers, though, because all of us should be shouting these comparisons from the rooftops:

• The Louisiana Purchase: $217,000,000,000.  (No wonder people thought Jefferson was insane.)
• The race to the Moon: $237,000,000,000.
• The New Deal: $500,000,000,000.
• The Iraq War: $597,000,000,000.
• The Obama-Reid-Pelosi Porkfest Stimulus:$1,173,000,000,000.

The Iraq War figure uses the mathematics of its critics, which includes the normal cost of the armed forces during that time regardless of their deployment — but so much the better for this comparison.  We could buy more of North America and do another moon shot, and we’d not only spend less than half of the current stimulus, we’d create a lot more jobs, too.  The so-called stimulus costs more than the Iraq War and the New Deal put together.

And while the Iraq War ostensibly cost more than the New Deal, it didn’t leave America anywhere near as bankrupt as the government meddling in the lending markets did.

Be sure to read Flip’s take on it, and spread the word.