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President Trump released a $4.7 trillion budget for next year that Democrats have already declared “dead on arrival.”
While it's not the first time for such a declaration, it's also not the first time the budget process bears little resemblance to the way most of us conduct our personal business.
Along with the nation's $22 trillion deficit, the numbers are difficult to comprehend.
A trillion is a thousand billions. That's a one followed by 12 zeros.
"If you spent $1 million dollars a day, every single day, since Jesus walked the earth," says RIA Advisors economist Lance Roberts, "You still would not have spent a trillion dollars."
It's a lot of money.
The White House proposal includes more than a trillion dollars in new debt and, about, $407 billion in cuts.
Since the numbers can be mindboggling, try imagining it all as a household budget, by dropping eight zeros.
Now, the budget looks like this:
- Household Income: $36,450
- Spending: $47,460
- New Debt (credit card): $11,010
- Outstanding Credit Debt: $221,191
- Budget Cuts: $4,076
Roberts says it is no way for families, or the government, to conduct business.
"All that diverts money away from productive investment in the economy," says Roberts. "Things that would grow our economy, is being diverted by this debt structure."
Since the White House budget has little chance of passing "as is", it's is considered a list of the President's spending priorities.
The last time Congress passed a full-budget, rather than stop-gap measures like the one that ended the recent government shutdown was 2009.
The next fiscal year begins October 1.