$700 billion bailout plan...

For over 30 years, Illinois" Everett Dirksen served as US Representative and then Senator, and 40-plus years ago he was quoted as cautioning that federal spending had a way of getting out of control, saying “A billion here and a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking real money."

Time magazine on October 6, 2008 put the bailout/rescue plan amount in perspective, saying that with $700 billion you could:

• Give every person in the US $2300, or very household $6200
• Pay the income taxes of every American who makes under $500,000 a year
• Fully fund the Defense, Treasury, State, Veterans Affairs, and Interior Departments next year -- as well as NASA
• Buy gasoline for every car in the US for 16 months
• Buy every NFL, NBA, and Major League Baseball team, build them all a new stadium, and pay all the players $191 million each for a year
• Create the 17th largest economy in the world, roughly equal to the Netherlands
• Or pay off only 7% of our national debt of $9.8 trillion