I was going to put this on the joke thread, but it ain't funny.


"The fiscal cliff simplified

This puts things into a much better perspective.      
Lesson # 1:

* U.S. Tax revenue: $2,170,000,000,000
* Fed budget: $3,820,000,000,000
* New debt: $ 1,650,000,000,000
* National debt: $14,271,000,000,000
* Recent budget cuts: $ 38,500,000,000

Let's now remove 8 zeros and pretend it's a household budget:

* Annual family income: $21,700
* Money the family spent: $38,200
* New debt on the credit card: $16,500
* Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710
* Total budget cuts so far: $38.50

Got It ?????

OK now,

Lesson # 2:   

Here's another way to look at the Debt Ceiling:

Let's say you come home from work and find
there has been a sewer backup in your neighborhood
and your home has sewage all the way up to your ceilings.

What do you think you should do,
raise the ceilings, or remove the shit? "

I rec'd that in an email and figured that along with the XL Pipeline folks would like to say something about this, too.