Most of us don't think often about a trillion of anything. We think in terms of ones or tens, maybe hundreds or thousands.
But as the late U.S. Sen. Everett Dirksen of Illinois is said to have remarked about exorbitant federal government finances, when you are spending multiple billions of dollars, pretty soon "you're talking real money."
So we can only wonder what he would think of today's trillions of dollars in spending.
Washington is adding more than $1.5 trillion this year alone to our more than $14.2 trillion national debt.
The spending is outpacing high taxes and multiplying the massive interest we must pay annually to finance the debt. Yet the president and Democrats in Congress keep resisting real budget cuts proposed by Republicans.
Obviously, we can't just cut off all runaway spending instantly - even if the American people approved. Our government must fulfill its constitutional responsibilities. But many federal officials scarcely even pretend they will insist on cutting wasteful spending to balance budgets - ever.
Shouldn't we as taxpayers insist upon reduction of a lot of unnecessary and unconstitutional federal spending?
When we are in a hole - and it's caving in - it's past time to quit digging.