In general, the art of government consists in taking
as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to another.
... Voltaire
Government budgets can agitate even the most calmest of
citizens. The U.S. federal government expects to spend more than $2.5
trillion in fiscal 2006. Try to appreciate the size of that number.
If you began counting immediately and counted one number each second of every
waking moment of every day it would take you more than 100,000 years to reach
2.5 trillion. Even counting by thousands, you would be dead long before you
approached 2,500,000,000,000.
Of course what is spent by government rarely equals what
is received by government. Most years federal budgets run deeply into the
red. Why? Does it matter? Are budget deficits dragging us into
fiscal oblivion? We'd better decide soon. When the baby boomers
begin to retire in a few years, the costs of our current Social Security and
Medicare programs will soar.
Should we invest in worry beads?
III-C. Government budget deficits and debt
1. Debtiphobia
2. Surpluses and Saliva
3. Social Security: Apocalypse Soon?
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