At the beginning of George W. Bush’s occupation of the White House, the federal debt was projected to be nearly eliminated by 2008. That was the projection if we had stayed the course set during the Clinton administration. But with years of Republican tax cuts for the rich and supplementary appropriations for a war that began as a choice, the federal debt reached $9,086,714,640,576 on the morning of November 9, 2007. How much is 9.087 trillion dollars? In order to get $9.087 trillion dollars all in one place, you’d have to make a stack of $1 bills 626,690 miles high. That’s a stack of bills reaching out to the moon, and then back to the Earth, and two thirds of the way back to the moon.
(Source: Fact Sheets for House Consideration of the 2005 Budget, House Budget Committee, Democratic Caucus, March 23, 2004; National Debt Clock; Bureau of Engraving and Printing)
