What would $611 billion buy?

"If the Bush administration succeeds in its latest request for funding for the war in Iraq, the total cost would rise to $611.5 billion."

It's hard to get perspective on how much money that really is...especially for Canadians who's Federal Government has a yearly budget of about $209 billion versus the American's $2,700 billion. In fact, Canada's entire budget is smaller than the yearly deficit incurred in the States over the past several years.

Rest assured the IntraWebs have provided perspective. Here is Boston.com's take on the war costs.

One of my favs:

More than a year's worth of Medicare benefits for everyone

In fiscal 2008, Medicare benefits will total $454 billion, according to a Heritage Foundation summary. The $611 billion in war costs is 17 times the amount vetoed by the president for a $35 billion health benefit program for poor children.

Because the veto is that much more appalling in this context isn't it?

and:

A real war on poverty

According to World Bank estimates, $54 billion a year would eliminate starvation and malnutrition globally by 2015, while $30 billion would provide a year of primary education for every child on earth.

At the upper range of those estimates, the $611 billion cost of the war could have fed and educated the world's poor for seven years.