What the heck happened?????

[HK4U]

I received this in my e-mail today. Thought I would share



The next time you hear a politician use the word 'billion' in a casual manner, think about whether you want the 'politicians' spending your tax money.
A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but one advertising agency did a good job of putting that figure into some perspective in one of its releases.

A. A billion seconds ago it was 1959.

B. A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.

C. A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.

D. A billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet.

E. A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate our government is spending it.

While this thought is still fresh in our brain, let's take a look at New Orleans. It's amazing what you can learn with some simple division.

Louisiana Senator, Mary Landrieu (D), is presently asking the Congress for $250 BILLION to rebuild New Orleans. Interesting number; what does it mean?

A. Well, if you are one of 484,674 residents of New Orleans (every man, woman, child), you each get $516,528.

B. Or, if you have one of the 188,251 homes in New Orleans , your home gets $1,329,787.

C. Or, if you are a family of four, your family gets $2,066,012.

Washington , D.C.... HELLO!!! ... Are all your calculators broken??

Accounts Receivable Tax
Building Permit Tax
CDL License Tax
Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Dog License Tax
Federal Income Tax
Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)
Fishing License Tax
Food License Tax
Fuel Permit Tax
Gasoline Tax
Hunting License Tax
Inheritance Tax
Inventory Tax
IRS Interest Charges (tax on top of tax)
IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)
Liquor Tax
Luxury Tax
Marriage License Tax
Medicare Tax
Property Tax
Real Estate Tax
Service charge taxes
Social Security Tax
Road Usage Tax (Truckers)
Sales Taxes
Recreational Vehicle Tax
School Tax
State Income Tax
State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)
Telephone Federal Excise Tax
Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Tax
Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Tax
Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax
Telephone Recurring and Non-recurring Charges Tax
Telephone State and Local Tax
Telephone Usage Charge Tax
Utility Tax
Vehicle License Registration Tax
Vehicle Sales Tax
Watercraft Registration Tax
Well Permit Tax
Workers' Compensation Tax

THINK THIS IS FUNNY?
Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago,
and our nation was the most prosperous in the world.
We had absolutely no national debt, had the largest middle class in the world, and Mom stayed home to raise the kids.

What happened? Can you spell "politicians" !

And I still have to 'press
1' for English.

I hope this goes around the
USA at least 100 times.

What the heck happened?????

[NDS]

Originally Posted by HK4U

...What the heck happened?????

Greed, my friend. Greedy, lying politicians...



and those who support them.

[DrDavidM]

Of course this is disturbing. I think I may be happier not knowing what they are doing with the money. I would probably be more upset if I actually knew where it was going.

[toreskha]

I don't know exactly what all they're rebuilding in New Orleans, but municipal infrastructure construction is really expensive. For example, building one mile of road typically costs between $100 - 200k, and that's assuming you're not doing anything complicated like filling in marshes or going through a mountain.

Jacksonville has 3400 miles of paved roads. $250 million (million, not billion) would pave about 1666 miles, assuming a cost of $150k per mile. Then there's power lines and transformer stations, bridges, sewers, water treatment facilities, telephone landlines, etc. All of that costs *a LOT* more than paving roads. Any good-sized city in America has been built up over the years and probably would cost at least several hundred billion dollars to actually replace if it were heavily damaged. Look at how much we're blowing on Iraq, and they're not even citizens.

I think New Orleans should be rebuilt farther inland in a much less vulnerable spot, and a good chunk of the area that was washed out should be turned back into marshland to act as a buffer zone. There's no reason to do this crap all over again in a decade. Part of the expense is probably those giant bridges they had, which may be somewhat unnecessary if the whole thing were more inland to begin with.

[skipjack_1st]

UNREAL!!!! What has happened to this country? Then I see that when B.Obama visited in MI he stated that the government needs to do MORE for the poor folk!!! Ladies and gentlemen, I truly fear for this nation......