‘A trillion here ... a trillion there’

A few years ago, back when the national debt was a “mere” $16 trillion, Dr. Ben Carson was speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C.

In his attempt to emphasize the size of the debt, (the size of the debt’s “actual number” that is), he said: “If you could count by ones (counting one number per second), it would take 507,000 years to count up to 16 trillion. (That’s a “mere” 5,070 centuries worth of time.)

So I got to thinking, the only real difference after the 2016 election is whether it’s going to be a Liberal or a Conservative in the White House. What have we gained? The debt (and the “actual number”) will be almost $22 trillion by Jan. 2017. The nation will still be stone broke. Hmmm, maybe if we can cut out, uh, or maybe, uh? ....? Arghhhh! It’s useless, I thought.

So, I decided that Sunday, after church, I think I’ll go for a walk with the grandkids, take a nice nap before dinner, and be sure to serve that nice Cabernet I’ve been saving (for an occasion I can’t recall). Life is simply just too short.

Maybe though, bright and early on Monday I can start: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, … .

The writer lives in North Myrtle Beach.

This story was originally published September 13, 2015 at 1:55 PM with the headline "‘A trillion here ... a trillion there’."