SOME NUMBERS FOR THE NEW YEAR 2010

1. $459 billion: the size of the federal budget deficit in 2008.
2. $1,587 trillion: the size of the federal budget deficit in 2009.
3. 0: the number of House Republicans who voted for the stimulus bill.
4. 1: the number of U.S. senators it took to blow up the public option in health care reform.
5. 60: the number of votes needed to move legislation in the U.S. Senate.
6. 13,930: the estimated high-end number of H1N1-related deaths between April 2009 and November 2009.
7. 2.9: the number of percentage points unemployment jumped between November2008 (6.5 percent) and November 2009 (9.4 percent).
8. 5.7 million: the number of people working part time because they could not find a full-time job in 2008.
9. 9.1 million: the number of people working part time for the same reasonin 2009.
10. 119,874: the number of personal bankruptcy filings in 2009, as of this column.
11. 358,471: the number of home foreclosures from September 2008 to August 2009
12. $3.65: the average price for a gallon of gas in September 2008.
13. $2.59: the average price for a gallon of gas in September 2009.
14. $99,000(give or take): the price for one share of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, as of this writting.
15. 5.07 percent: the average interest rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgagein 2009.
16. 155: the numberof lives saved by pilot Capt. Chesley Sullenberger's abilityto land U.S. Airways Flight 1549 on, not in, the Hudson River.
17. 41: the percentage of Americansin a recent NBC/WSJ poll who feel eithervery or somewhat positive about the tea party movement.
18. 700,000: the number of cars sold under the Cash for Clunkers program.
19. $22,000: the median debt faced by recent college graduates in 2009.
20. 1,100: the total square footage of the new White House vegetable garden planted by Michelle Obama and 23 fifth-graders from Bancroft Elementary School.
21. $439 million: the average amount districts held by Democrats received infederal stimulus money.
22. $232 million: the average amount districts held by Republicans receivedin federal stimulus money.
23. 20: the number of city blocks between the former World Trade Center siteand the federal courthouse where Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, one of theaccused masterminds of 9/11, will be tried.