US fiscal facts of life...
President Bush signed legislation last Friday raising the government's debt limit by $800 billion and clearing the way for Congress to send him an overdue $388 billion spending bill to finance most federal agencies. The new federal borrowing cap is $8.18 trillion; that's 70 percent the size of the entire U.S. economy, and more than $2.4 trillion higher than the debt Mr. Bush inherited upon taking office in 2001. The US government is 8.5 trilion dollars in debt and the deficit this year is 336 billion. A scary perspective... It's only a billion. A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but one advertising agency did a good job of putting that figure into perspective in one of its releases. (www.lemetroplecafe.com)
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.
A billion days ago no one walked on earth.
A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate (the US) government spends it. Got Gold & Silver dudes....