Below is a link to a chart prepared by The New York Times showing graphically how the 2011 budget (of $3.69 TRILLION) is allocated, plus how it compares to the 2010 budget. (By mousing over each section, a popup appears with more detailed info.) I post this so those interested can see how much of the federal pie the railroads get (compared to other forms of transportation).
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/02/01/us/budget.html?hp
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And in case you cannot grasp how much a trillion is:
A trillion is equal to 1 million million (1,000,000,000,000)
If you laid one dollar bills end to end, you could make a chain that stretches from earth to the moon and back again 200 times before you ran out of dollar bills.
One trillion dollars laid end to end would stretch from the earth to the sun.
It would take a military jet flying at the speed of sound, reeling out a roll of dollar bills behind it, 14 years before it reeled out one trillion dollar bills.
What does $1 Trillion look like? http://www.pagetutor.com/trillion/index.html
Now multiply that by 3.69.
That's the US budget. (probably not good to think about when doing your taxes)
1 trillion seconds= 31,709 years
3.69 trillion seconds=just over 117,000 years
Kinda puts things into perspective.
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