Just Some Perspective on Planned Parenthood

It still sounds like Planned Parenthood is the single biggest sticking point preventing a budget deal and possibly triggering a government shutdown, now that we're less than 14 hours away. It seems virtually unbelievable that the GOP would be willing to shut down the government over this.

While Planned Parenthood is important to Democrats - and just people generally - by offering important medical services to women, there is literally almost no reason other than sheer spite that the GOP would want to defund them. Planned Parenthood is required by law to already not pay for abortions with federal money. That's not the issue here.

However, this is a budget fight, and some people may try to argue that it's a worth cutting the money for it. This is possibly the most unbelievable thing of all. Out of a federal budget that is approximately $3.8 trillion, Planned Parenthood costs $75 million dollars. Here is some perspective on just how little of the budget that is:

• If the federal budget was the circumference of the planet earth at the equator, planned parenthood $$ would span half a mile
• If the federal budget was the average distance from the sun to Neptune, Planned Parenthood $$ would only make it 2/10th of 1% of the way to Mercury
• If the federal budget was all votes cast nationally in the 2008 presidential election, $$ for Planned Parenthood would = approximately 2,600 votes
• If the federal budget was surface area of continental united states, $$ for Planned Parenthood $$ = area of Lake Wallula in Oregon
• If the federal budget was Lebron James' 2010-2011 salary ($14,500,000), Planned Parentood $$ = $286
• If federal budget was 1 day, Planned Parenthood $$ = 1.7 seconds
• If the federal budget was the entire length of the Harry Potter book series (in US pages), Planned Parenthood $$ = 8% of 1 page
• If the federal budget were the age of United States from the ratification of Declaration of Independence, planned parenthood $$ = 40.5 hours
• If the federal budget was height of the Empire State Building to the top of the spire, Planned Parenthood $$ = 9 millimeters
• If the federal budget was the capacity of a single-layer Blu-ray Disc, Planned Parenthood $$ = 517 KB
• If the federal budget was length of entire Interstate Highway System (as of 2006), Planned Parenthood $$ = 9/10th of mile
• If the federal budget was the King James Version of the bible, Planned Parenthood $$ = 16 words
• If the federal budget was average distance to the moon, Planned Parenthood $$ = 4.7 miles
• If the federal budget was the entire Major League Baseball season, Planned Parenthood $$ = 1/2 inning
• If the federal budget was the temperature of the surface of the sun (9,940 degrees F), Planned Parenthood $$ = 2/10th of 1 degree F (with a baseline of 0)

Hopefully that will give you some perspective over just how small a portion of the budget the GOP is willing to shutdown the government over, and not even to do anything except attempt to destroy women's access to health care