Un-Liberaled Woman

I got this email from a friend the other day. The author used Google SketchUp to basically DO THE JOB of Congress and the Pop Idol President when it comes to explaining to joe public what they’ve just signed up us, our children and our grandchildren for in government spending (and the taxation that will come with it) for the years to come. If you can still look at this and defend massive government spending, I’m convinced you should be legally licensed as INSANE because you are clearly a part of that 49% who really do believe the government has “an independent revenue source,” or as I like to say – you think money grows on trees. For you 49%, please do yourself a favor and read this:

Most governments receive their money from taxation revenues, which in the US generally comes from income tax, direct withholdings (Social Security tax, Medicare tax), tax collections from corporations, retirement tax, property taxes, death taxes, inheritance taxes and capital gains tax (like you’re 401k or selling of YOUR assets).  

Okay, on to the email -

All this talk about “stimulus packages” and “bailouts”…A billion dollars… A hundred billion dollars… Eight hundred billion dollars… One TRILLION dollars…

What does that look like? I mean, these various numbers are tossed around like so many doggie treats, so I thought I’d take Google Sketchup out for a test drive and try to get a sense of what exactly a trillion dollars looks like.

We’ll start with a $100 dollar bill. Currently the largest U.S. denomination in general circulation. Most everyone has seen them, slighty fewer have owned them. Guaranteed to make friends wherever they go.

A packet of one hundred $100 bills is less than 1/2″ thick and contains $10,000. Fits in your pocket easily and is more than enough for week or two of shamefully decadent fun.

Believe it or not, this next little pile is $1 million dollars (100 packets of $10,000). You could stuff that into a grocery bag and walk around with it. 

 While a measly $1 million looked a little unimpressive, $100 million is a little more respectable. It fits neatly on a standard pallet… 

 

And $1 BILLION dollars… now we’re really getting somewhere…

Finally, we’ll look at ONE TRILLION dollars. This is that number we’ve been hearing so much about. What is a trillion dollars? Well, it’s a million million. It’s a thousand billion. It’s a one followed by 12 zeros.  (Note: This is literally $1,000,000,000,000.00)

You ready for this?

It’s pretty surprising.

Go ahead…

Scroll down…

Ladies and gentlemen… I give you $1 trillion dollars…

(And notice those pallets are double stacked.)

So the next time you hear someone toss around the phrase “trillion dollars”… that’s what they’re talking about.

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To top this post off, keep in mind that if you take that trillion and triple it, then you’ll get Obama’s projected budget in ADDITION to the porkulus and the $500 million appropriations bill passed the other week. I mean does it get any clearer than this when the Congressional Budget Office states that President Obama’s budget plan will “increase the federal deficit by $2.3 trillion more over 10 years than the White House had claimed” ??? And the CBO is not some right-wing conspiracy think tank. They are an independent, objective, non-partisan budget advisory. I’m all for questioning things when they come via a partisan think tank, but this is clear cut evidence that this spending is out of control. And I don’t want to hear the “well, Obama, inherited a $1 trillion deficit.” Umm, that poor excuse doesn’t authorize tripling our debt. Only a buffoon would use that weak argument to back up their point. And I’m not even getting into to detail about the evidence out there that shows Obama has underestimated his spending proposals to the public by at least $1.6 trillion – so get ready folks, there’s probably more spending proposals to come.

But to the “inherited debt” defense, as Christopher Buckley stated, Obama asked for the job on the notion that he would clean up Washington and provide a “pay-as-we-go” style management to the budget. He acknowledged there was an economic crisis and growing national debt – and used these fear politics to make the smoke & mirrors case that he could fix the deficit and restore the economy. This was his rebuttal during the debates when McCain warned us about Obama’s predictable behavior of supporting massive spending and that this practice would only continue once the Unicorn Princess took the office. Obama said that wouldn’t be the case in his administration even though there was evidence he had proposed $1 billion in earmarks during his very short federal Senate tenure. If you don’t believe me look it up in the debate transcripts.

But now all of a sudden his supporters are acting like Obama was blind-sided by the “inherited” debt. Umm, riddle me this – where is the logic in the following….

Pre-election stance: “There is massive govt. debt and I’m not George Bush and will clean up the debt by a pay-as-we-go management of the budget” 

Post-inauguration stance: “The growing debt is not my fault because I ”inherited” a bunch even though the proposed spending not even with the first 100 days of my administration is triple that of the amount I “inherited,” AND in fact is more than what all other U.S. president have spent COMBINED.”  

Again, liberals – where is the logic? Gee, Obama suuuuuure was right in his arrogant claim that he has “done more in 30 days than any other president,” but not right in the way he and his supporters probably hope.

Somebody should send the White House a Budget-FAIL t-shirt. Wake up, people!