Apart from agreeing that the 2017 Republican tax bill benefits primarily the rich, one of the few points of agreement is at least $1.5 trillion will be added to our national debt over a ten year period.
So, what can $1.5 trillion buy, you ask? Good question.
Instead of subsidizing tax cuts for the rich ...
With $1.5 trillion you could pay off the entire debt of every credit card holder in America, and still have at least $500 hundred billion to spend.
With $1.5 trillion you could pay off the student loan debt of every student who borrowed to go to college in America.
With $1.5 trillion you could make every public college and university tuition-free for four years, and still have $1.42 trillion left over (to, presumably, pay off every student student loan now on the books).
With $1.5 trillion we could build, according to the very libertarian Cato Institute, a national high-speed rail system, and still have enough to guarantee every American child access to high-quality day care or prekindergarten, for 10 years!
With $1.5 trillion you could purchase the Apple corporation, and still have about $600 billion left over to buy each NFL, MLB, and the NBA franchise (and then name yourself commissioner of American sports).
There's more, but you get the point. We could do far more, and provide greater value for our national dollar, than we would by subsidizing tax cuts for billionaires and multimillionaires who don't actually need the money.
New York Magazine has a few other things we could purchase with $1.5 trillion, which you can access by clicking here.
Finally, if you're having a difficult time imagining what $1.5 trillion looks like, check out the picture below.
Imagine packets of $100 bills stacked on a pallet. You would need 100 of these pallets, stacked 100 high, to get $1 trillion. This is about 465 feet high, which makes it considerably taller than the Statue of Liberty (305 ft). Put another set of $100 pallets that reached 232 ft high next to the trillion dollar pallet and you have about $1.5 trillion.
This is how much money Congress wants to add to our national debt to subsidize tax cuts for the rich.
- Mark
So, what can $1.5 trillion buy, you ask? Good question.
Instead of subsidizing tax cuts for the rich ...
With $1.5 trillion you could pay off the entire debt of every credit card holder in America, and still have at least $500 hundred billion to spend.
With $1.5 trillion you could pay off the student loan debt of every student who borrowed to go to college in America.
 |
| Source: Federal Reserve of St. Louis |
With $1.5 trillion you could make every public college and university tuition-free for four years, and still have $1.42 trillion left over (to, presumably, pay off every student student loan now on the books).
With $1.5 trillion we could build, according to the very libertarian Cato Institute, a national high-speed rail system, and still have enough to guarantee every American child access to high-quality day care or prekindergarten, for 10 years!
With $1.5 trillion you could purchase the Apple corporation, and still have about $600 billion left over to buy each NFL, MLB, and the NBA franchise (and then name yourself commissioner of American sports).
There's more, but you get the point. We could do far more, and provide greater value for our national dollar, than we would by subsidizing tax cuts for billionaires and multimillionaires who don't actually need the money.
New York Magazine has a few other things we could purchase with $1.5 trillion, which you can access by clicking here.
Finally, if you're having a difficult time imagining what $1.5 trillion looks like, check out the picture below.
 |
| The semi-truck below the flag holds $2 billion on its 20 pallets. |
This is how much money Congress wants to add to our national debt to subsidize tax cuts for the rich.
- Mark
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