With the Bush administration increasing the nation’s deficit by record numbers, even to the extent of making "Red Ink" Reagan appear more responsible by comparison, one’s mind becomes somewhat numbed every time we hear the number a billion dollars. Two billion a week for the war in Iraq, billions in tax credits for oil companies already recording record profits in the tens of billions, etc. It’s so common to hear of references to almost anything in the billions of dollars these days, that we’ve lost perspective.
And then I noticed an article, (apology for the lack of attribution, I’m old and forgetful), referring to a clever ad agency who found a way to put a billion into perspective. You may want to sit down for this, but this is what I learned:
-a billion seconds ago was in the year 1959
-a billion minutes ago our calendar was changing from B.C. to A.D. or year 1
-a billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the stone age
-a billion days ago no-one on earth walked on two feet.
Mind boggling? Well ponder this, a trillion is one thousand billion and Bush has added a half trillion dollars to your deficit with a few months left on his time clock to add to his record setting total.
For those of you who still have republican friends you may want to point this out to them and remind the so-called party of fiscal responsibility that John McSame is tied to the hip economically with Bush. And it won’t offend any of us hear at Rackjite if you also mention that Clinton left office with a huge surplus.
A billion seconds ago was in 1959? Wow, blew my old mind.