The late, great U.S. Sen. Everett Dirksen, R-Ill., was noted not only for responsible fiscal conservatism in his service to our country, but also for his colorful and melodic oratory.
In his heyday, Dirksen (1896-1969) deplored government spending that was much lower than it is today but was still exorbitant.
He once memorably said, “We are becoming so accustomed to millions and billions of dollars that ‘thousands’ has almost passed out of the dictionary.”
We were reminded of Dirksen’s remark by a recent news story that said, “The GOP budget would cut nearly $6 trillion over the next decade … .”
Time has marched on, and so today, instead of talking about thousands, or even millions and billions, we alarmingly are talking about government spending in the trillions!