McConnell Explains Size Stimulus Plan
When talking about the (size of the) economic stimulus plan, many of us have little to no idea how much $800 billion to $900 billion truly is. We know it’s much, but the amount is so high that we can’t fathom the exact amount.
Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell decided to stop talking about the total amount in general terms, and used it for an example. The example is highly effective, shocking even:
To give the proposed economic stimulus plan some perspective, “if you started the day Jesus Christ was born and spent $1 million every day since then, you still wouldn’t have spent $1 trillion.”
NRO’s Jim Geraghy did some research. McConnell’s math is correct:
Christ’s birth in year zero one, times 365, times 2009, gets you 733,285,000,000, or a bit over $733 billion. (Yes, I’m leaving out leap years.) You’re not even three-quarters of the way there. (Politifact calculates from 4 B.C.)
It’s a great soundbite and it’s correct. Republicans should use it constantly; hammer on it time and again. The amount we’re talking about is absolutely insane. The example given by McConnell drives that point home nicely.
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Of course we all know that Jesus was a liberal, so he’d approve, I guess.
Still cheaper than the war in Iraq.
Republicans may be controlling the airwaves right now over this stimulus bill, but they won’t be able to escape the perception that they only oppose spending when it helps struggling Americans.
A million here, a million there pretty soon we’re talking REAL money!!!
Possibly true but entirely irrelevant…
Had Mcconnell been honest, he would have referenced the stimulus package to Heru-sa-Aset (Horus, son of Isis) the Egyptian deity that dwelt among the human race several thousands of years before that upstart, Yeshua of Nazareth, saw the light of day. Some would say that Heru-sa-Aset was the real Jesus since they seemed to have had so many parallels in their lives (look it up). It’s almost as if there were a Heru-sa-Aset denier amongst the early church fathers (this was well BEFORE the Holocaust mind you). At any rate if you throw in another two thousand years (when Heru-sa-Aset was considered the true Son of God), then a million dollars per day begins to approach the amount that is actually required to do the job instead of the paltry sums being voted upon…
But I digress…
Care to elaborate ChrisWWW?
The entire point is – it won’t help Struggling American’s
But nice try on the soundbites.
But at $2 a day since the birth of Christ, you would have spent well over a trillion. So isn’t saving our economy worth $2 a day?
I’m kidding, of course. But honestly I’ve never really thought these sorts of number analogies all that useful. I can make just about any number look large or small using some visualization. But I suppose they might be useful to rally the base.
But yeah, I’m with you that 900 billion is a lot of money.