The tradition of government is to speak in total amounts, which are huge in our country of 300 million citizens. While it may be hard to gauge if one hundred billion dollars should be spent for drug education, we understand the idea of spending $330 per man, woman, and child. We can make better choices.
We know that when Congress is fighting over $0.08 per citizen ($25 million), we know it is not the money. We don't understand the top 2% of income earners, but do understand "people earning more than $400,000 last year". Using real numbers let us make choices, understand politics, and promotes better decisions.