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Congressional Democrats have argued that the amount of additional taxpayer dollars they wish to spend on growing the federal bureaucracy – $23 billion – is a small fraction of the overall federal budget. But over ten years, this difference amounts to $450 billion, which is an even larger figure than many of the budget fights that will take place this year.
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President Bush ridiculed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Thursday… for saying that the $22 billion that separates congressional Democrats from the White House on spending bills is a “very small difference." "Only in Washington can $22 billion be called a `very small difference,'" Bush said after meeting with his Cabinet. "That's a lot of money, even for career politicians in Washington." (AP, 8/2/07)
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“Well, it's exactly as the Speaker said. We have a very small difference. We have, I mean, really a small difference. And the question is whether we want to have a political issue or solve a problem.”
"The difference is so small, why are we doing all these veto threats?”
(Senator Harry Reid, press availability at the White House, 8/1/07)
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What Could Be Done With This
“Small Difference”?
· $450 billion amounts to a six-year repeal of the AMT,
· $450 billion would allow the child tax credit to be extended for another ten years, with $225 billion left to be used for other purposes,
· $450 billion is 91 percent of the “cost” of making the death tax permanent,
· $450 billion is 53 percent of the “cost” of making the individual income tax rates permanent,
· $450 billion is 11 times more than the amount of money needed to make marriage penalty relief permanent,
· $450 billion is twice the amount needed to make the capital gains and dividend tax relief permanent,
· $450 billion is nearly the same amount needed to protect the non-interest portion of the Social Security surplus over the next five years.
How Much is 23 Billion?
Only in Washington are numbers like 23,000,000,000 billion tossed around as though ‘23’ stood alone, without the 9 zeroes that follow. To put 23 billion in the proper perspective, consider the following:
· 23 billion seconds ago, it was August, 1252. At the time, Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph I of Germany made his sons Albert I of Germany and Rudolph II of Austria co-rulers of the duchies of Austria and Styria, thus founding the Habsburg dynasty in those territories. In addition, watermarks were invented in Bologna, Italy.
· 23 Billion Days Ago, it was the Cretaceous period on earth. The dinosaurs and ammonites (flat spiral shellfish) were unsuccessfully fighting extinction. On a more positive note, the first flowering plants evolved.
· 23 billion minutes ago, it was 22 billion minutes before the birth of Christ.
· 23 billion hamburgers would be 3 times more than the total number of hamburgers eaten in America last year.
· $23 billion dollars is $13.5 billion more than Americans spent at the box-office last year to see movies in the theatre.
· If you went on a $1000 shopping spree today and continued until you spent $23 billion, your shopping spree would last 63,020 years. Note for the ladies: That would allow you to purchase 41,818,181 new pairs of Manolo Blahniks.
· If you lined single up dollar bills end to end from the ground you are standing on, by the time you hit 23 billion dollar bills your line of dollars would have reached to the moon and back 5.5 times.
· $23 billion would pay for the home heating costs for every home in America this winter.
· If Congressman Rahm Emanuel sat down and counted 23 billion $1 bills at the rate of one per second without stopping, he would be 776 years old by the time he finished.
· If Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Harry Reid took $23 billion and divided it equally, they could send a check for $76.38 to every living person in America.
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