I know there are plenty of descriptions of the U.S. debt going around, but I'll add to the discussion:
The C-130 Hercules military transport plane has a maximum payload, in the C-130H iteration, of 45,000 lb. I will assume that interior space is not an issue, mostly because that is a lot of calculating to do.
A $100 bill weighs 1 gram (1/454 lb.).
454 bills / lb. x $100 / bill = $45,400 / lb.
$45,400 /lb. x 45,000 lb. / payload = $2,043,000,000 / payload
The Boehner plan would have $2.5 trillion available by early next year. Again for time reasons, I will assume that that means by 4/1/2012, or 250 days away.
Thus, starting today,
$2.5x10^12 / $2x10^9 / load = 1,250 loads
1,250 loads / 250 days = 5 loads / day
or one C-130 stuffed to the gills with $100 bills every 4 hours and 48 minutes.
With a cruising speed of 292 knots or 336 mph, that means if the C-130s had to fly the cash from San Antonio to New York, a great circle distance of about 1,600 miles, there would always be a plane in the air to keep up this schedule. Just to cover those costs of the United States government greater than revenue, without paying down a cent toward debt reduction.
