You can find these words in the congressional records; the quotes were attributed to Sen. Everett Dirksen, a senator from the State of Illinois: (On Government Spending and Growth) - in 1951.
“Mr. President, within a short stone's throw of where we are debating today sits a committee of Senators sweating, laboring earnestly to find a million dollars here, a few hundred thousand dollars there, in taxes. They are sitting within a few steps of this Chamber. I am referring to the Senate Finance Committee. They are trying to protect the business structure of the country which generates the wealth which produces the taxes we so wantonly and with blithe spirits and gleeful abandon freely squander. And I think it is squandering, as a matter of fact. This is the most remarkable area of contrast that I know anything about. In that committee they try to find a few million dollars in taxes. Here we are considering an amendment increasing an already huge appropriation by $1,000,000,000. It is like using a teaspoon in order to get a few taxes into the Treasury and at the same time at the back door using a scoop shovel to shovel them out”.
[Congressional Record, August 31, 1951, p. 10889-10890]
I know how easy it is to say, "Oh, it is only $20,000,000," or, "it is only $80,000,000," or "it is only $240,000,000" a year that will be taken out of the pockets of the taxpayer." But where will it finally stop? I do not know. An old man once taught me what a million is. He said, "Look at your watch, and watch the second hand. You can see it every second, every minute, every day, every night, every week, every month, every year – and in 3 years it would go around 1,000,000 times."
[Congressional Record, March 15, 1951, p. 2479]
He also is quoted as having said, “a million here, a million there, pretty soon you’re talking big dollars.”
Recently President Obama, and the teleprompter, stated that by enacting Health Care legislation, “we would be reducing the deficit by $1 Trillion dollars over 10 years”. He actually made a slight boo boo error in computation, to the tune of approx. $868 Billion. The US Budget Office only estimated $132 Billion in saving would be realized, and that too is only a maybe!
Well, a billion here, a billion there, another billion here, and another billion there…another billion here, and pretty soon you’re talking big dollars.
The only thing Bipartisan on this legislation is that both sides don’t fully support the measure.
Go back and do “true reform”, work on: Tort reform, expand insurance across state lines, and fix pre-existing conditions the right way. That will be the best way to begin to fix this problem.
“Mr. President, within a short stone's throw of where we are debating today sits a committee of Senators sweating, laboring earnestly to find a million dollars here, a few hundred thousand dollars there, in taxes. They are sitting within a few steps of this Chamber. I am referring to the Senate Finance Committee. They are trying to protect the business structure of the country which generates the wealth which produces the taxes we so wantonly and with blithe spirits and gleeful abandon freely squander. And I think it is squandering, as a matter of fact. This is the most remarkable area of contrast that I know anything about. In that committee they try to find a few million dollars in taxes. Here we are considering an amendment increasing an already huge appropriation by $1,000,000,000. It is like using a teaspoon in order to get a few taxes into the Treasury and at the same time at the back door using a scoop shovel to shovel them out”.
[Congressional Record, August 31, 1951, p. 10889-10890]
I know how easy it is to say, "Oh, it is only $20,000,000," or, "it is only $80,000,000," or "it is only $240,000,000" a year that will be taken out of the pockets of the taxpayer." But where will it finally stop? I do not know. An old man once taught me what a million is. He said, "Look at your watch, and watch the second hand. You can see it every second, every minute, every day, every night, every week, every month, every year – and in 3 years it would go around 1,000,000 times."
[Congressional Record, March 15, 1951, p. 2479]
He also is quoted as having said, “a million here, a million there, pretty soon you’re talking big dollars.”
Recently President Obama, and the teleprompter, stated that by enacting Health Care legislation, “we would be reducing the deficit by $1 Trillion dollars over 10 years”. He actually made a slight boo boo error in computation, to the tune of approx. $868 Billion. The US Budget Office only estimated $132 Billion in saving would be realized, and that too is only a maybe!
Well, a billion here, a billion there, another billion here, and another billion there…another billion here, and pretty soon you’re talking big dollars.
The only thing Bipartisan on this legislation is that both sides don’t fully support the measure.
Go back and do “true reform”, work on: Tort reform, expand insurance across state lines, and fix pre-existing conditions the right way. That will be the best way to begin to fix this problem.
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