President Eisenhower Comment in Farewell Address

As we peer into society's future, we must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without asking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow. -President Eisenhower, Farewell Address

Of course, the Farewell Address is far better known for its reference to a military industrial complex, but I think this statement from the moderate to conservative President deserves attention as well. David Stokes (January 16, 2011) notes that when he began his first term in 1953, the national debt was 260 billion dollars. By the time he died in 1969, it had grown to 353 billion, the peak of the Vietnam War. Today, of course, the debt is over 14 Trillion Dollars.

One million seconds is about 11 1/2 days. A billion seconds is32 years. A trillion seconds is 32,000 years.

I hope it does not take the political class a trillion seconds to figure out how much trouble they have gotten us into.