Yup, I am amazed at how people seem to be blind at the scale of money when we are talking about whatever. I can't be arsed to dig up credible sources ATM but my business is ecigs so I pay attention to the lobbying by big tobacco and pharma against ecigs. The federal government isn't supposed to use tax money for lobbying but there are loopholes which essentially allow it. The number I remember is something like $2 billion given to anti-nicotine zealots to end up lobbying even though it is truly said to be for some sort of "social awareness service". There are billions given out for war and Fed thrift plus all sorts of horrible programs but they seem to come up short for $20 million for some sort of space program.