In the 1960s, former Senator Everett Dirksen is reputed to have said “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking about real money.” Although many have long cautioned that federal spending is out of control, this concern has not resulted in any slowdown in government spending. The national debt is $20,492,919,204,874 and growing – over $60,000 per capita. That’s 20.5 TRILLION dollars, up from “only” 9 trillion dollars a decade ago. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the debt will be around 31 trillion dollars by 2027.
Does your common sense tell you we can’t sustain additional government deficit spending or tax cuts without actually paying for them through spending cuts and other budgetary reductions? Is the federal government able to borrow or print money indefinitely without future adverse repercussions? I don’t think so! Unimpeded debt growth will eventually damage the US economy, undermine our currency and standard of living, and harm future generations. More delay only exacerbates the upcoming reckoning.
It’s difficult to fathom a billion dollars, let alone a trillion dollars. Recently I received an email with an analysis of what a billion really means. I thought it stimulating enough to check the facts. The facts checked out close enough to reprint it in my blog for your consideration. The italicized language is as I received it. The bracketed language is my addition. My fact checking follows for those interested. Please remember as you read this: A “trillion” is 1,000 times a “billion.”
The next time you hear a politician use the word ‘billion’ in a casual manner, think about whether you want the ‘politicians’ spending YOUR tax money. A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but one advertising agency did a good job of putting that figure into some perspective in one of its releases.
- A billion seconds ago it was 1959. [31.7 years]
- A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive. [1902 years]
- A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age [114,155 years].
- A billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet. [2,739,726 years]
- A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate our government is spending it. [$4.094 trillion2017 budget/365 da/yr/24 hrs/da/=$467 million/hr, so a billion in 2017 was spent in only 2 hours and 8 minutes.]
While this thought is still fresh in our brain … let’s take a look at New Orleans [after Hurricane Katrina]… It’s amazing what you can learn with some simple division.
Louisiana Senator, Mary Landrieu (D) was asking Congress for 250 BILLION DOLLARS to rebuild New Orleans. Interesting number … What does it mean?
- Well … If you are one of the 484,674 residents of New Orleans (every man, woman and child), you each get $516,528.
- Or … If you have one of the 188,251 homes in New Orleans , your home gets $1,329,787.
- Or… If you are a family of four, your family gets $2,066,012.
Washington, D.C.
HELLO! Are all your calculators broken??
FACT CHECKING
The math is off a bit but the results are representative of the stated results. It’s likely this analysis has been around for a while, since 1959 + 31.7 years is ~1991. I found another good article posted on-line which confirmed my results in more detail. https://www.snopes.com/inboxer/trivia/billions.asp
Louisiana Sens. David Vitter (R) and Mary Landrieu (D) did request $250 billion under the Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief and Economic Recovery Act. They didn’t receive the full amount but they did ok at the federal trough: “Officials estimate that federal spending related to the hurricane totals more than $120 billion — about $76 billion of that going to Louisiana projects. That’s almost three times the size of Louisiana’s annual budget.”
Again, the article’s New Orleans math is off a tad, but the results are generally correct. Since the estimated 2017 population is down significantly from a decade ago, the numbers would be even larger.
Here are some of the relevant links I consulted for this article: https://www.thebalance.com/current-u-s-federal-government-spending-3305763 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/25/AR2005092501413.html https://www.statista.com/statistics/203064/national-debt-of-the-united-states-per-capita/ http://worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities/new-orleans-population/ https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0827/Katrina-anniversary-How-well-has-recovery-money-been-spent http://www.nola.com/katrina/index.ssf/2015/08/federal_governments_120_billio.html