Federal Budget Reaches Astronomical Proportions, Literally

Row of $1000 bills reaches perigee of moon’s orbit on Election Day.

Bob Sullentrup has discovered what he thinks is a great campaign opportunity for the Libertarian Party in 2004. At the same time, it’s a dismal milestone for taxpayers.

According to Sullentrup, for the first time in history on November 2^nd, Election Day, the federal government will require a $2.338 trillion budget. This amount of money in thousand dollar bills would stretch from the earth to the closest point in the moon’s orbit.

When reviewing a fundraising letter his predecessor, former Missouri LP chair Jim Givens, had drafted after Missouri’s convention, Bob was struck by the federal budget of $2.3 trillion.

“A million is a very large number by all accounts, and a trillion is a million of millions. Ronald Reagan in the early 1980’s translated federal spending into stacks of bills, but I haven’t seen that updated recently”, he stated.

Being both a former math teacher and astronomy merit badge counselor, Bob wanted to put $2.3 trillion into a more tangible representation. “One-Hundred dollar bills bundled at 250 to the inch would stretch from Washington, DC to at least western Kansas if not Denver”, he calculated. The question for him then became how far would the money stretch if placed end-to-end.

“When I calculated that $100 bills was already about ten times past the moon, I was very disappointed. Two million miles from earth is nowhere close to any astronomical object.” He recovered quickly from his Homer Simpson moment noting, “But then it occurred to me to just use $1000 bills. Duh!”

“Clinton’s last budget was $1.84 trillion as I recall, and Bush’s first was $1.96 trillion, some $150/month more spending for every family of size four in America. Bush’s first budget came before 9/11 and when Republicans, the so-called party of limited government, controlled both houses and the presidency.”, he continued. “I’m glad I didn’t waste my vote casting it for Bush hoping to get limited government.”

“Whether you use budgets or actuals or go back 5 years or 10 years or use growth rates or raw numbers, the general result is always the same – government expenditures are always increasing”, he explained. “I ended up using a basic model with $2.3 trillion for 2004 and $2.4 trillion for 2005, values that are not precise but commonly quoted and generally accurate. When you do, 123 days after mid-year 2004 is enough to raise the budget requirement from $2.3 trillion to $2.338 trillion on its way to the current 2005 projection of $2.4 trillion. What’s more important than when it happens is that it happens.”

The closest the moon comes to the earth is 356,375 kilometers or 221,451 miles. Using the length of a bill of 6 1/8 inches, $2.3 trillion in $1000 bills is already 217,803 miles long. A budget that grows to $2.338 trillion could in theory reach the moon in $1000 bills.

“The opportunity that Libertarians have is to concentrate radio or TV ads just before the election.”, he added. “It’s a clear and compelling image which we think will make people angry at politicians and bureaucrats. The message will be simple: It’s lunacy for government to be spending that much money, it’s harmful to America, so send a message and vote Libertarian.” These are annual expenditures so the federal government is poised to shoot the moon again in 2005.

Others have noted their own novel ways to cast gluttonous federal spending.

Dr. William Franz and Dr. George Spagna of Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Virginia have devised analogies to make recent federal budgets more understandable (see http://www.collegenews.org/x2368.xml). Last year when the budget was “only” $2.23 trillion:

• The federal budget if cashed into Sacagawea dollars would weigh the equivalent of 339 full sized battleships like the USS Missouri.
• If President George W. Bush were laid end to end 2 trillion times, he would stretch to the sun and back 13 times. (He might choose to do this at night when it’s cooler).
• The U.S. Government, instead of spending its federal budget as the president recommends, could satisfy hunger in the nation by ordering 2 pizzas for every man, woman, and child, in the United States every day for the entire fiscal year.
• A 5-pound bag of sugar contains about 225 million grains. If the entire federal budget were spent on that single bag it would be about $10,000 per grain of sugar.

“It would take about $50,000 to cover St. Louis in TV ads”, Sullentrup noted, “and then there’s KC, Columbia and Springfield”. Radio advertising, however, is more attainable. “I’d like us to get on flagship stations in major markets with the message, and offer the ads to Libertarians across the state to air on local markets.”

The idea will be broached to the Missouri Libertarian Party Executive Committee in May.