What would 'Ev' say? - Selling our soul to the company store - to the tune of trillions

摘要

A billion here, a billion there and pretty soon you are talking real money." That quote is attributed to the late Sen. Everett Dirksen. However, in the last few years, the U.S. debt has been elevated far beyond Dirksen's "real money" references. We are now talking trillions. In 1791, the national debt was USD75 million, according to the Bureau of the Public Debt figures on Ed Hall's National Debt Clock website. Today, it increases by that much every hour or so. It ballooned a trillion dollars to USD10 trillion in fiscal 2008; that's about USD4 billion a day and some USD35,000 for each man, woman and child. Add to that Medicare, Social Security, and other unfunded federal obligations and the number balloons to trillions more.