Cut Numbers Down to Size

When the government starts tossing numbers around like "trillions," everyone's eyes glaze over. A trillion is, unfortunately, beyond the comprehension of most people. By that we mean, you can hear the word "trillion," but compared to the hundreds of millions and hundreds of billions tossed around on a regular basis, it just loses all meaning. Example: The sun is 93 million miles away from Earth. If it were a trillion miles away, that's five orders of magnitude, meaning it's a big fucking deal.

So what if we shrink Obama's budget numbers down a bit. Take away some zeros. And then apply it to a household budget. That's exactly what some people did in Florida. National Review picks up the story:

  • The Gainesville Tea Party seems to have the right idea: They take some of our key economic numbers — how much money the U.S. government brings in, how much it spends, and how much brave politicians are “cutting” to bring those numbers into balance — and simply lop off eight zeros (i.e., divide by 100 million) to make those numbers something that American families can relate to:

    Why S&P Downgraded the US:
    U.S. Tax revenue: $2,170,000,000,000
    Federal budget: $3,820,000,000,000
    New debt: $ 1,650,000,000,000
    National debt: $14,271,000,000,000
    Recent [April] budget cut: $ 38,500,000,000

    Let’s remove 8 zeros and pretend it’s a household budget:
    Annual family income: $21,700
    Money the family spent: $38,200
    New debt on the credit card: $16,500
    Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710
    Budget cuts: $385

Oh no! It was a Tea Party organization calling attention to the out-of-control spending of the Obama Administration. That must mean the entire premise is illegitimate and we must be racists for pointing it out.

By the way, the stock market dropped 400 points, Europe is on the verge of ruin and that double -dip recession Obama's people said wasn't on the horizon? It passed us a few weeks ago. Watch for the "unexpected drops" in various categories to be announced quietly on Friday afternoons in the coming months.