Everyone nods on this particular point and then proceeds to debate (or not) the merits of the expenditure.
I nodded for a long time too. But I realized the other week, as I listened to Charles Krauthammer respond to a question posed during an interview on NPR about Bush's proposed 87 billion dollar "emergency" package for Iraq (or maybe Haliburton, et al - you decide) that I didn't know what the hell I was nodding about.
...
Interviewer (paraphrase): 87 billion dollars is a lot of money, can we afford this with a sputtering economy?
Krauthammer (paraphrase): Well, the US has an 11 trillion dollar economy so I think we can handle such an expense. Plus, we must rebuild...yadda, yadda, yadda.
...
Now what does this mean?
Surely it does not mean that the US treasury has command of 10 (or 11) trillion dollars of capital it can write checks against. I go to the treasury department website and other statistical sources but have so far read nothing that decisively explains what this 10 (or 11) trillion dollar economy is actually composed of.
A simple and fundamental question I know and to people who read such things and know precisely what's meant perhaps a silly one. But I am a bit confused here.
Some clarification (or directions to references) would be appreciated.
DRM
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