On the Road to Ruin? - Garner Ted Armstrong - April 1978

Garner Ted Armstrong

We've come a long way since the early days of the Republic, when the federal budget amounted to a few "paltry" tens of millions of dollars. It took a full 173 years-from the founding of the United States in 1789 until 1962 - for America's national budget to hit the staggering $100 billion mark. It took only nine more years, until 1971, to reach $200 billion. Four years later we surpassed $300 billion , and two years after that, $400 billion. Now, President Carter has proposed a $500 billion budget for fiscal 1979, which begins October 1, 1978 - an increase of $38 billion from the previous year. It's hard for the average person to grasp just how much a half-trillion is. Here's one way: If you put that amount in a line of dollar bills laid end to end, it would reach to the moon and back 250 times! Stacked up, 500 billion silver dollars would reach as high as 2,830,500 Empire State Buildings. - Information Supplied By: Herbert W Armstrong Library