What's a billion?

Rico says his friend Tex forwards this one:

This is too true to be funny.
The next time you hear a politician use the word 'billion' in a casual manner, think about
whether you want 'politicians' spending your tax money.
A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but one advertising agency did a good job of putting that figure into some perspective in one of its releases:

A billion seconds ago, it was 1959.A billion minutes ago, Jesus was alive.A billion hours ago, our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.A billion days ago, no one walked on the earth on two feet.A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate our government is spending it...

While that thought is still fresh in our brain, let's take a look at New Orleans.
It's amazing what you can learn with some simple division...

Democratic Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu has asked Congress for 250 billion dollars to rebuild New Orleans .
Interesting number... What does it mean?
A. Well, if you are one of the 484,674 residents of New Orleans (every man, woman and child), you each get $516,528.
B. Or, if you have one of the 188,251 homes in New Orleans, your home gets $1,329,787.
C. Or, if you are a family of four, your family gets $2,066,012.

Washington , D.C., hello? Are all your calculators broken?? 

They already have these taxes:
Building Permit Tax
CDL License Tax
Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Dog License Tax
Federal Income Tax (Fed)
Federal Unemployment Tax (FU TA)
Fishing License Tax
Food License Tax
Fuel Permit Tax
Gasoline Tax
Hunting License Tax
Inheritance Tax
Inventory Tax
IRS Interest Charges (tax on top of tax)
IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)
Liquor Tax
Luxury Tax
Marriage License Tax
Medicare Tax
Property Tax
Real Estate Tax
Service charge Taxes
Social Security Tax
Road Usage Tax (Truckers)
Sales Taxes
Recreational Vehicle Tax
School Tax
State Income Tax
State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)
Telephone Federal Excise Tax
Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Tax
Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Tax
Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax
Telephone Recurring and Non-recurringCharges Tax
Telephone State and Local Tax
Telephone Usage ChargeTax
Utility Tax
Vehicle License Registration Tax
Vehicle Sales Tax
Watercraft Registration Tax
Well Permit Tax
Workers Compensation Tax
(And to think, we left British rule to avoid so many taxes)

Not one of these taxes existed a hundred years ago, and our nation was the most prosperous in the world.
What happened?
Can you spell 'politicians'! 

And I still have to 'Press One For English'...