'A million here and a million there'

By Mark Hopkins

The subject here is the national debt and various claims about how to eliminate it. One of the most quoted statements made by a national politician came from former Illinois Senator Everett Dirksen. In a conversation related to the national budget he said, "A billion here and a billion there and the first thing you know you are talking about real money."

In a recent interview with Bob Woodward and Robert Costa of The Washington Post, presidential candidate Donald Trump said he could eliminate the national debt in eight years. We would all love it if that were the case. However, considering the entire national budget is less than $3.5 trillion and the national debt exceeds $19 trillion, cutting the budget enough to eliminate the debt in eight years seems well beyond impossible. It was another in a long list of ridiculous claims by candidate Trump.

Nineteen trillion dollars is a sum that is easily written down but not easily understood. For those of us who have difficulty making sense out of more than three or four zeros in a number, a trillion dollars has 12 zeros. A billion dollars is 10 hundred million and a trillion dollars is 10 hundred billion. Let's try something that may put it in a more understandable context.

A billion seconds ago, it was 1959. A billion minutes ago, Jesus was alive. A billion hours ago, our ancestors were living in the Stone Age. Our government spends $1 billion in about eight hours and 20 minutes. I would make the same comparisons with trillions, but there is no way to go back that far.

Where does all this money come from? Well, from me and thee, folks. We have, by actual count, 48 different taxes assessed on the American public each year. That generates about $3.4 trillion and leaves us about 10 percent short of the money we need to run the country, which, along with wars, is where the deficit has come from over the years. There have been only five years of balanced budgets since Harry Truman was president.

I would add that only one of these taxes existed 100 years ago. The income tax was created by an amendment to the Constitution in 1913. At that point in time, our nation was the most prosperous in the world and had no national debt.

I would love to have a solution to the national debt. Unfortunately, smarter people than me have tried to deal with it over the years and most have given up in exasperation. Mathematics tells us we either have to cut spending or raise income. Translate the latter to, "raise taxes." Surely it is not that simple, or is it?