Government Math…FOR KIDS!

By Keith Johnson

Luke:  She's rich.
Han Solo:  [interested] Rich?
Luke:   Rich, powerful. Listen, if you were to rescue her, the reward would be…
Han Solo:  What?
Luke:  Well, more wealth than you can imagine!
Han Solo:  I don't know, I can imagine quite a bit.
                                   from Star Wars-Episode IV-A New Hope

Hello, boys and girls!

Did you know that you and I can create millions, billions and even trillions of numbers just as easily as the Federal Reserve?  All you have to do is use your imagination.  Let's try it!

I'll use the number proposed by Obama for his 2011 Federal Budget.  Its numerical value looks something like this:

3,800,000,000,000

Translated into words, that number is pronounced as three trillion eight hundred billion.

That's a big number, huh?  It only took me three seconds to produce that number.  Let's put a dollar sign in front of that:

$3,800,000,000,000

Now, let's take that number and put it in the deposit column of our checkbook ledger and add that in to what we have on account.  For me, that figure would add up to be:

$3,800,000,000,127.14

I'm RICH!

Let's do the same for the Federal government.  Let's take that $3,800,000,000,000 that Obama wants for his 2011 Federal budget and put it into the deposit column of what the Federal government has on account.

Wait a minute!  The Federal government has no money on account.  As a matter of fact, they are this many dollars in the hole:

$13,053,274,954,598

O.K., so if the Federal Reserve gives the Federal government $3,800,000,000,000, does that bring the number down to:

$9,253,274,954,600?

Well, it would be if the Federal Reserve actually gave that money to the Federal government.  Unfortunately, that money is only a loan.  So, if we add what the Federal government already owes to the Federal Reserve to what it wants to borrow in the future, that number would be:

-$16,853,274,954,600

Did you catch that minus (-) figure I inserted before the dollar sign, children?  That ((MINUS!!!)) represents what you and your children and your children's children and their children will be expected to pay back to the Federal Reserve the minute they're born.

Now, if you'd like to spare your children all that grief and pay off your share of that debt right now, all you need to do is cough up $42,265.41.  But that doesn't quite get you off the hook because starting next year, you'll have to come up with about $1500.00 per month to pay for your share of the 2011 Federal budget.

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