And before anyone says "god damn conservatives", this has been going on across the aisle and is ongoing as we speak. Getting rid of helium is a truly bipartisan agenda.
All of this to say: The claims of helium's value have been greatly exaggerated.
> Fortunately for us, helium also gets into the natural gas that oil and gas drillers extract from the ground for use as fuel [source: University of Pittsburgh]. That gives us a supply that we can use for blowing up balloons, as well as for a wide variety of other industrial processes, ranging from arc welding to MRIs to manufacturing silicon chips for computers. There has to be a certain amount of helium in the natural gas — at least 0.3 percent by volume – to justify all the trouble of separating it from natural gas.