Fox News did some arithmetic, and found that spending $100 per second it would take 2,853 years to spend the $9 TR that 44 proposes to add to the public debt. (My calculator computes 2,853.88 years, which rounds up to 2,854 under the rules I learned in school.) Look at it this way: There are 31,536,000 seconds in one year. To spend $9 TR in 10 years--the period over which 44's $9 TR budget binge is to run--would take spending nearly $30,000 per second! (To be precise, $28,538.80 per second.)
In 1931, lyricist E. Y. (Yip) Harburg penned this deathless verse as the Great Depression deepened:
Once I built a railroad, I made it run, made it race against time.
Once I built a railroad; now it's done. Brother, can you spare a dime?
Once I built a tower, up to the sun, brick, and rivet, and lime;
Once I built a tower, now it's done. Brother, can you spare a dime?
It is time to update this, with apologies to Yip (a died-in-the-wool Democrat all his days):
VOTER, CAN YOU SPARE A TRIL?
Once I owned some big banks, pumped in dough, told them "Empty the till!"
Ordered pseudo-stim'lus, little done; Voter, can you spare a TRIL?
Once I bought up GM, Chrysler too, made 'em pay union bills.
Then I Rx'd health care for each one; Voter, can you spare 9 TRILS?
Copyright John C. Wohlstetter 2009
Comments