So, at full burn, enough to run a national laboratory for half a century. This is what rich looks like.

The national laboratory budget is $14bn/yr.

Sure, if we assume that the total budget for the 17 national labs is $14B, that would imply that the average lab is a bit less than $1B/year to run. Hence $40B can run an "average" lab for around 50 years. Or am I missing your point?

	▲	sidewndr46 5 days ago \| parent [-]
		funding is not even per year to year, but your point is still valid