On April 2nd, Speaker Nancy Pelosi succeeded in passing her federal budget that outlines more than 3.5 trillion dollars in spending for fiscal year 2010. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected a 1.8 trillion dollar deficit for the current fiscal year (FY2009), and that projection does not include the stimulus bill that will cost Americans more than one trillion dollars, which was signed into law by the President on February 1st. As of April 7, 2009, the U.S. national debt stands at more than eleven trillion dollars (you can view the latest numbers here).
The sheer magnitude of Speaker Pelosi’s spending spree is mind boggling. Most of us do not use the number 1,000,000,000,000 in our daily lives, so it is difficult to attach tangible value to the figure. However, as Congress and the Administration continues spending your tax dollars trillions of dollars at a time, it is worthwhile to have a discussion about what these numbers really mean.
One of the simplest ways to get an idea of one trillion dollars is to consider the amount in terms of the passage of time. One million seconds is equal to roughly eleven days and twelve hours, and one billion seconds is thirty-two years. One trillion seconds equals thirty-two thousand years.
If you spent one million dollars every minute of every day, it would take you nearly two years to spend one trillion dollars. Apparently, that’s not fast enough for Speaker Pelosi. Under her budget, the government plans to spend 6.7 million dollars every minute during the next fiscal year alone.
There are 4.24 million people living in Kentucky. Raising one trillion dollars from every man, woman and child in the Commonwealth would require Kentuckians to contribute $235,849.05 each. $235,849.05 is enough money to pay for four years of tuition at the University of Kentucky for yourself and thirteen of your children or grandchildren.
In fact, one trillion dollars could pay for the college education at a four-year public institution for every student graduating high school across America from now until 2018. It could pay the rent of every renter in the nation for three years, or the mortgage of every homeowner for fourteen months. It is even enough money to purchase all the homes that were foreclosed in 2007 and 2008 combined.
Speaker Pelosi’s budget projects deficits averaging almost one trillion dollars a year for five years. By fiscal year 2014, her budget predicts the national debt will exceed seventeen trillion dollars. The American people know that we cannot spend our way to prosperity. The attempt will saddle our children and grandchildren with mountains of debt. At a time when virtually every American is tightening their budgets, Congress should show some restraint. I remain committed to restoring fiscal sanity in Washington, and I hope President Obama and my colleagues in Congress can work together to put an end to unreasonable federal spending.
Moe Lane
Dan McLaughlin
Neil Stevens
Daniel Horowitz
But No Money for National Defense
robmikpet (Diary) Tuesday, April 7th at 4:58PM EST (link)The left and the Dems are undertaking a systematic weakening of the United States.
This nation, that has stood as a bulwark for freedom and liberty around the world. Who helped defeat fascism and Japanese militarism and has liberated tens of millions of muslims from tyranny.
This is unprecedented but it is part of a DESIGNED PLAN! 2010 may be our last chance to beat this back. Everyone who voted for McCain if you convince one more voter or take one more voter to the polls in 2010, we can stop this madness. Dear God give us the strength to never quit, never give up and fight to take back this country to the founding principals that made her great.
Also the amount of the budget
larryp Tuesday, April 7th at 5:03PM EST (link)3.4 trillion, would take about 100,000 years to count to. And to put it into perspective, 100,000 yrs ago would be the middle-end of the Pleistocene Age. That was when there were glaciers all over. Interesting that that era would be the real global cooling era!
3.5 trillion is a ton of money...
debel_u Tuesday, April 7th at 5:38PM EST (link)But so is 3.1 trillion.
February 4, 2008: “President Bush submitted a federal budget of $3.1 trillion on Monday, declaring that the spending plan would keep the United States safe and prosperous and, despite its record size, would adhere to his principle of letting Americans keep as much of their own money as possible.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/04/washington/04cnd-budget.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
Ahhhh, but that $3.1 trillion
Vegas_Rick (Diary) Tuesday, April 7th at 6:13PM EST (link)came with a $450 billion deficit. Not $1.8 trillion as your Dear Leader has propsed.
“God is great, beer is good and people are crazy.”- Billy Currington
“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘press on’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.” Calvin Coolidge.
and also want on TOP of countless other Trillions
JLenardDetroit (Diary) Tuesday, April 7th at 6:29PM EST (link)…. except for the TARP that other Republicans should have blocked, even when Bush wanted to go through with it – Half of which handed over to the ObamaBinBiden admin to spend that Libs won’t discuss ….. Now the big 0 (zero), oops, “O” (oh), wants 8% agency bumps on top of all that special interest cash he funneled some of their way via Porkulus language…. not to mention TARP II, Porkulus II, and all the other ways they will bamboozle people into supporting on our March to Bankrupting the country. Obama and his merry band of SOCIALISTS (oops, sorry, Progressives – they wrongly insist there is a difference) liked the Soviet model so much they want to follow it in/through Bankruptcy too!
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WOW a dyed in the wool liberaall come over here from the nether regions....
JadedByPolitics (Diary) Tuesday, April 7th at 6:16PM EST (link)to try to make a point…..pay attention sparky you might learn something about the difference between the two and oh by God do not bring the NY Times to our shores as proof….seriously don’t do it!
Unified Patriots – How-To:
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There's a reason we call those the nether regions
E Pluribus Unum (Diary) Tuesday, April 7th at 6:18PM EST (link)Because that’s what lefties smell like – nether regions.
Kill the Terrorists
Protect the Borders
Punch the Hippies h/t IMAO
exactly which is why I used those particular words...heh!...nt
JadedByPolitics (Diary) Tuesday, April 7th at 6:30PM EST (link)….
Unified Patriots – How-To:
Activists Taking Action
That's nice. Who told you to recite it to us?
Moe Lane (Diary) Tuesday, April 7th at 6:23PM EST (link)I mean, clearly you didn’t think of it on your own: if you had, you would have noticed that the point is about our skyrocketing deficit.
De-fi-cit.
D E F I C I T…
Oh, never mind. Bored now.
Blam.
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Oh that's right
red4ever (Diary) Tuesday, April 7th at 6:57PM EST (link)when in debt spend MORE. Not less, not hold spending. Spend MORE. Because, everyone with a brain knows that the way out of debt is to keep spending money you don’t have.
The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.
Dante
And...
Vegas_Rick (Diary) Tuesday, April 7th at 6:16PM EST (link)It wasn’t preceded by a $1 trillion “stimulus” bill and a $500 billion “appropriations” bill.
Very equivalent!
“God is great, beer is good and people are crazy.”- Billy Currington
“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘press on’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.” Calvin Coolidge.
An idea
Steph C (Diary) Tuesday, April 7th at 6:40PM EST (link)Considering all we heard about while Bush was in office was Clinton’s balanced budget, here’s what we do:
When we throw the bums out of office, we confiscate their wages, salaries, and other perks in the manner in which they want to tax other people’s money to 90%. If they can’t scrape up enough to pay for the deficit, then they can go to work like the rest of us.
“[I]f the public are bound to yield obedience to laws to which they cannot give their approbation, they are slaves to those who make such laws and enforce them.” –Candidus in the Boston Gazette, 1772
Hillbilly Politics
OK keeping the spirty of numbers...
Jack (Diary) Tuesday, April 7th at 6:43PM EST (link)This budget that Nancy P passed (every time I see her I do believe passing a kidney stone would be less painful then watching her).
To pay this budget requires us to borrow 44% of it. Not since WW II have we had to borrow money on such a scale to make our budget.
Jack
“If at age 20 you are conservative you have no heart. It at age 30 you are liberal you have no brains.” Sir Winston Churchill
If you haven't seen this....
evanm (Diary) Tuesday, April 7th at 6:55PM EST (link)What $1 trillion looks like in $100 bills
You think it’s not going to be that impressive. Then…
Wow.
scottbomb (Diary) Tuesday, April 7th at 10:32PM EST (link)That was sobering. Thanks for the link!
www.HowObamaGotElected.com
“The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But, under the name of ‘liberalism’, they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.” – Norman Thomas, U.S. Socialist Party presidential candidate 1940, 1944 and 1948
What $3.5 trillion can buy...
ddstrain (Diary) Tuesday, April 7th at 7:29PM EST (link)just a few items that came to mind that I just priced.
777.78 – Nimitz-class nuclear powered aircraft carriers @ $4.5B each
813,953.49 – M1A2 Abrams MBT @ $4.3MM each
2,058.82 – new Space Shuttles @ $1.7B each
7,777.78 – Space shuttle missions @ $450MM each
67,307,692.31 – years of tuition, room, meals, books at fees at MIT @ $52,000 each
1,296,296.30 – Super Bowl (in 2008) commercials @ $2.7MM each
12,727,272.73 – 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle #311 rookie card in graded Gem Mint 10 by PSA @ $250,000 each (only 3 are in existence)
One more thing came to mind
ddstrain (Diary) Tuesday, April 7th at 7:49PM EST (link)$3.5 trillion will buy..
10,000 Hope Diamonds @ $350MM each.
Rep. Davis, will you commit to term limits?
thegoodfight Tuesday, April 7th at 8:53PM EST (link)Loved your article, but what I and all patriotic Americans love & need more are TERM LIMITS. Will you make this commitment to America? I am begging you and your fellow representatives. Save your country, save freedom. Limit your terms.
Unilateral term limits are not a good idea.
Brian Hibbert (Diary) Tuesday, April 7th at 10:08PM EST (link)Unless they apply to both sides, we are just surrendering seats.
Candidate for Trustee of Illinois Central College
Socialism doesn’t work. It looks nice on paper, but it’s been tried and it’s failed miserably every time (usually accompanied by widespread death and suffering).
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Rep Davis thanks for the article
carlsbadd Tuesday, April 7th at 9:21PM EST (link)Thanks for keeping us informed. Trillions seems to be just part of the language now and it shouldn’t be.
Anyone know of a debt ticker to put on websites?
randolph (Diary) Tuesday, April 7th at 10:47PM EST (link)I for one would love to put a ticker on my blog and my facebook page that counts the national debt, like on this page:
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/
Anyone know of one? This would be a great grassroots web effort, putting a debt ticker on every blog we can…
*a citizen of two cities*
That leads me to the question
DerKrieger (Diary) Tuesday, April 7th at 10:52PM EST (link)Just WTF are they spending it all on?
“In questions of power, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.” – Thomas Jefferson
“I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.” – James Madison
Whenever the legislators endeavor to take away and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any further obedience.” — John Locke, 1690
Votes...
merkurfan Tuesday, April 7th at 11:47PM EST (link)nt