"Only about 3.4 percent of the total"?

This is typical.

The Miami Herald urges passage of the spending bill, notwithstanding the obvious flaws:

"We don't disagree with the critics on that point. Taxpayers for Common Sense, a watchdog group, says the bill has more than 8,500 earmarks, at a cost of $7.7 billion. Although that amounts to only about 3.4 percent of the total . . ."

http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/941406.html

"Only" 3.4 percent of the total? Isn't that a huge amount of money, when talking about billions of dollars? (trillions of dollars?)