Forty billion dollars is a lot of money. For anyone. Imagine what you could do with forty billion dollars. Almost anything, and anything that costs more than forty billion dollars is probably overpriced or evil.

When it comes to the budget of the United States of America, forty billion dollars is a drop in the bucket. They are spending trillions of dollars each year. I don't know for sure because no one knows for sure. Let's just say for the sake of America that there's five trillion dollars in the budget, and that's a low estimate.

Let's do some simple math. Forty billion divided by five trillion equals .008 percent. So it's just a little less than a penny's worth of the overall budget dollar.

The federal government almost went into shutdown and needed extensions to settle a penny's worth of issues in the budget. Republicans had to stand their ground on planned parenthood, Democrats had to stay up late and compromise. If you believed the politicians and the media, you would think this was a showdown of epic proportions. When all the dust cleared, both Republicans and Democrats claimed victory. Each can hold their heads high. Each has invigorated their base. Each said they trimmed the budget. Over a penny's worth of issues.

The media scooped up the press releases and sound bites like little eager beavers. Top story on your nightly news broadcast! Front page headlines in your newspaper! Budget Battle! Operation Economy! All over forty billion dollars worth of money.

Personally, I would have lobbied for the government to make 40,000 random taxpayers millionaires with the forty billion in question, but no one asked me. Heck, you could even tax them on their millionaire money, so it would be less than that.

Here's the real problem. Our national debt is not based on whether or not we spend forty billion dollars on questionable or object-able causes. It's whether or not we are spending a TRILLION dollars more than we make. The fight wasn't about spending money on wars, or defense, or social security. It was about the appearance of trimming the budget. And saving face. That's politics.

I swear, if politicians had no money at their disposal, they would be completely worthless. Since most of them are lawyers who take money from lobbyists and corporations and the wealthy, they are really just puppets and spokespeople for those who pay them. Not so much representatives of their constituents and the American people in general.

Does the media jump on that? Nope. They like their press releases and sound bites. It's not whether what's going on is right. It's whether this side comes out a winner, and the other side comes out a loser.

Funny thing is that they all get paid, win or lose. The country is in debt. I didn't overspend. You didn't overspend (at least not that much). The people the majority of the country voted for to run the country overspent. They have been doing it for years. They will continue to do it for years. Until trillions become quadrillions. They make a penny's worth of issues look like the most important thing in the world, while the big picture stays blurry.

Pay your taxes, America, or don't. The money has already been spent, plus a trillion or two.

Chris Jungle wishes his column was worth a penny.