Numbers: Trying to gain a perspective.

Our politicians are arguing over $73 billion dollars. Republicans want to cut $100 billion from the 2011 budget, democrats $51 billion. They have agreed to split the difference at $73 billion but not how to reach that number.

Let's put this into perspective.

$6,000,000,000

Approximately Minnesota's budget deficit. If we took all the money from the richest person in Minnesota, it wouldn't be enough. At quick internet search reveals Richard Shulze (founder of Best Buy) is worth $2,500,000,000. Even if we there were two of him, and we could tax their entire worth, it wouldn't be enough to cover Minnesota's budget deficit. Since we tax income, not wealth, we would need many more wealthy Minnesotan's to fix the problem simply by taxing them. The problem is ... there aren't enough millionaires in Minnesota to solve this problem by taxation alone.

$95,000,000,000

Budget deficit in 2001, the last year Clinton's budget was in effect. Some news sources claim he ran a $132,000,000,000 surplus but those do not account for Bush's $38,000,000,000 tax rebates, nor Clinton's borrowing from social security. Keep in mind that Bush and Obama also borrow from Social Security, so we really are comparing apples to apples.

$304,000,000,000

Budget deficit in 2004. Thank you Mr Republican for increasing the deficit ~300% in three years. It wasn't all Iraq and Afghanistan either ... that only accounted for ~ $90,000,000,000 / year. Another record deficit.

$482,000,000,000

Bush's last budget, in 2009. Remember when Democrats blocked his attempt to reform Social Security? If he felt entitlement needed reform, why in tarnation did he sign into law the $900,000,000,000 Medicare Prescription Act? Another record deficit.

$1,560,000,000,000

Obama's 2010 budget. Are you freakin' kidding me? And why aren't the articles touting it as a record deficit?

$1,270,000,000,000

His 2011 budget looks good only compared to his 2010 budget. Didn't we hear about bailed out businesses like GM and some banks paying the gov't back in 2010? Why is it still three times bigger than Bush's last budget?

$1,650,000,000,000

His 2012 budget proposal, which is expected to add $9,500,000,000,000 to the national debt over the course of ten years (it is currently $14,000,000,000,000 and change). Once again, it isn't being called a "record deficit".

Back to my point.

Our legislators are arguing about $73,000,000,000. These amounts are hard to wrap our minds around, so let's see the relative amounts:

A million is a thousand thousand. Most of us will earn a million bucks or more over our lifetime.
A billion is a thousand million. Or a million thousand. Most of us will never see this kind of money.
A trillion is a thousand billion. Or a million million. A million people with a million dollars will have a trillion dollars combined.

Here's another way to look at it:

$1,650,000,000,000
     $73,000,000,000

$73 billion is a mere 4.4% of the budget deficit. Not of the entire budget, but of the budget deficit.

I don't know what the solution is. but taxing more and spending far less has to be a part of it. Instead we see our elected representatives bicker over peanuts, passing the problem down to our children (and their children too).

So have a beer, relax, and enjoy the good times while you can, before this ship runs aground.