I got here throughout a studying lately during which the writer quoted the late Republican Senator Everett Dirksen. He was Senate Minority chief from 1959 to 1969.
The quote, which Dirksen is alleged to have made about overspending by the federal authorities, is “A billion right here, a billion there, and fairly quickly you’re speaking actual cash.”
After I first heard that quote within the late Nineteen Sixties, I didn’t imagine Dirksen stated it. Why? As a result of the federal price range on the time he was alleged to have stated it (the early Nineteen Sixties) hadn’t but damaged above $100 billion yearly. So everybody would have understood {that a} billion {dollars}, not to mention $2 billion (a billion right here and a billion there) was in itself over 1 p.c of the federal price range and so nobody would have needed to have that identified to her or him.
So what would have made extra sense, and what I vaguely recall listening to quoted within the late Nineteen Sixties, once I began being attentive to U.S. politics, is “1,000,000 right here, 1,000,000 there, and fairly quickly you’re speaking actual cash.”
I needed to make use of that line in an article a number of years in the past, however I couldn’t discover it. So I known as the Dirksen Congressional Heart in Pekin, Illinois and was informed that the Heart had no report of Dirksen ever having stated it. This text exhibits that very same Heart saying there was no proof of the billion greenback quantity both.
What’s my level? My level is that we’ve had what I’ll name “quote inflation.” Let me clarify. Examine $1 million in 1960 to the dimensions of U.S. GDP in 1960. U.S. GDP was $543.3 billion in 1960 {dollars}. $1 million is 0.000184 p.c of $543.3 billion.
So apply that very same proportion to our present GDP, which is simply shy of $26 trillion.
0.000184 p.c of $26 trillion is $46.8 million. Spherical that as much as $50 million.
So in case you needed to be trustworthy to the spirit of the Dirksen quote, if he had stated it, you’ll say right this moment:
$50 million right here, $50 million there, and fairly quickly you’re speaking actual cash.
One billion is 20 occasions $50 million.
This simply goes to point out how excessive a threshold individuals suppose is required to consider authorities spending including as much as “actual cash.”
