If there's some sort of rational need to correlate word-counts in legislation with the actual cost of the legislation, then, as Jamie points out:
$425.9 million per word, or how much the 2,174 words of the Iraq authorization bill has cost us so far.
And Media Matters calculated that because the House reform bill reduces the deficit by $104 billion, then...
...the bill would actually save $260,000 per word.
Hey, I wonder if the corporate press knows that "Kennedy" and "Lincoln" have the same number of letters. Creepy! And somehow newsworthy! And what about Sarah Palin. She once used the word "retarded" to describe her baby, and her speaking fee is around $100,000. That means she gets $100,000 per "retarded." Holy crap that's spooky! I wonder what other nonsensical correlations the very serious press will come up with.