It's All About Decimal Point Placement

Political debate always sends me back to the history books. I was doing a little research on what was happening in and around 1976 and found some interesting quotes that show the debates is the same only the numbers have changed.

Recently a guy at the bar told me "When you were a kid, would you have ever thought that you'd be paying $150 for a pair of tennis shoes?"

I asked the guy who was in his mid-50s (my age), how much he paid when he was a kid. He said $15.

I asked him, "When you were a kid paying 15 cents for a medium come at the Dairy Queen, did you ever think you'd be paying $1.50 someday for a medium cone at the same Dairy Queen?"
---

"The fact is, we'll never build a lasting economic recovery by going deeper into debt at a faster rate than we ever have before. It took this nation 166 years until the middle of World War II to finally accumulate a debt of $95 billion. It took this administration just the last 12 months to add $95 billion to the debt. And this administration has run up almost one-fourth of the total national debt in just these short 19 months."

Ronald Reagan
March 31, 1976

"As a matter of fact, the Treasury Department just published a prototype consolidated financial statement last month, based on fiscal 1975 figures. It estimated that the deficit in fiscal 1975 was $152 billion, instead of $43 as the final budget figures for that year showed. So, we are really talking about more than a $160 or $165 billion deficit—far more—but even if it were only $165 billion, such a figure would be, and is, fraught with the most serious of implications."

Congressman Phillip Crane 1977
former Illinois Congressman from 1965-2005



"The 1976 Democratic Platform might well add another $200 billion in annual government spending and could, if implemented, create serious and protracted economic problems. The costs in the platform could amount to nearly $1,000 in new federal spending for every man, woman and child in the United States and would create real risks of a return to double-digit inflation which would rapidly erode the savings, earnings, and economic security of all Americans."

William Simon
Treasury Secretary under Nixon

Read more @ Imprimis.