How much of the stimulus money did Bobby Jindal turn down?

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said a few days ago that he was going to reject about $100 million of the stimulus money from the federal government. $100 million sounds like a lot, but it's really just a small fraction of the $4 billion that Louisiana was allocated, meaning that he'll be accepting 97.5% of the money and turning down a grand total of 2.5 percent.

This positioning of oneself as a financial conservative while still taking pretty much all the stimulus money didn't escape Jon Stewart last night:

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And there are a ton of other examples that can be given to show how much was accepted, and how much turned down. Let's take a look at this 2.5 percent. First, here's what 2.5 percent of the United States looks like:



Next we come to donuts. Behold 21 Krispy Kreme donuts:

Turning down 2.5 percent of these 21 Krispy Kreme donuts would mean eating 20.5 of them and leaving one half of the last one alone. Something tells me that the headline after eating 20.5 of them wouldn't be "X rejects half of donut".

Now let's say you ordered a quarter pounder with cheese (510 calories):

then add to that a medium french fries (380 calories) and a large coke (310 calories). Giving up 2.5% of that would be the equivalent of giving up two packets of ketchup (30 calories).


It's also the equivalent of buying a pack of 25 of these:

then smoking 24 of them, lighting up the last one, taking three or so drags, and putting it out.

And finally, it's like turning down a $1 million home, and going with a $975,000 home instead.