This week, our federal government is trying to get two bills passed.

One is a trillion-dollar infrastructure bill which is primarily targeted at rebuilding roads, bridges, broadband, public transportation, water systems, etc.

The second is a $3.5 trillion social spending bill, which the Wall Street Journal predicts could actually cost $5.5 trillion over the next 10 years. President Joe Biden has said “it’s going to cost nothing,” and Speaker Nancy Pelosi said “the dollar amount, as the president said, is zero.”

Whoa! Wait a dang second, here. How is that possible?

Well, it’s not.

Do they really think we believe that nonsense? They tell us they can pay for it by taxing corporations and the wealthy and it won’t cost you and me anything. Don’t believe it, not even for one second.

Speaking of seconds and trillions, let’s compare the two just to get some idea of how much a trillion dollars really is.

But, first let’s start with a million, OK?

A million seconds ago was about two weeks ago. A billion seconds ago was 32 years ago. And a trillion seconds ago was 32,000 years ago! And the democrats are talking about a single $3 trillion dollar bill.

Three trillion seconds was about 100,000 years ago.

At that time, we were in an ice age, with the Great Lakes area completely covered in glacial ice. Human beings as we know today were just leaving Africa and migrating to Europe.

Does that help us better understand what it means when Washington speaks of spending $3 trillion on a single bill?

Right now, we are $28 trillion dollars in debt and haven’t had a balanced budget in 25 years. We as a country will borrow another $3 trillion dollars this year alone.

Folks, this is no way to run a country.

At some point, we need to figure out how much government we want and compare it to how much we can afford, because passing this inconceivable amount of debt on to our children and grandchildren is something no other generation has done to their children in all of American history.

It’s well known in Washington politics that an ace up your sleeve, while trying to get bills passed, is saying it’s for the children.

Well, that excuse has been abused far too long.

How will it be possible for future generations to pay for the amount of government they will need, when they will be financially saddled by paying off what we thought we needed? I consider passing that debt to our kids and their kids to be financial child abuse, and it has to come to an end, and soon.

I wonder, if you asked those politicians who favor passing the $3 trillion bill how much money there was in the entire U.S., would they know the answer?

I didn’t, so I looked it up.

It’s only $2 trillion dollars in total currency.

That’s right, if you took ALL the physical money in the country, it’s not enough to pay for those one bill.

So I believe we have come to a point in history when we need to look at exactly what we expect from our government.

In the simplest of terms, I believe the government should provide for us things we can’t provide for ourselves, like a national defense.

I can’t protect our country by myself. I need government to do that. I can’t build roads and bridges by myself. I need government to do that. We need law enforcement, fire departments, judicial systems, and, yes, lawmakers. We need a system to care for those who are unable to care for themselves. We need agencies to help keep our water and air clean, take care of national parks, and regulate pollution.

And the list goes on, but the fact is, we do need a government to do those things for us, and that costs money.

We all heard from our parents while we were growing up, “Money doesn’t grow on trees.” At least, I think we all heard that, but maybe politicians were raised in families that never said things like that.

Regardless, our elected officials in Washington need to hear it now and begin immediately to take better care of the nation’s finances.

A quote, generally attributed to Alexander Fraser Tytler, a Scottish lawyer in the 1800s, goes like this: “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.”

Folks, I may be the only Chicken Little in the room saying “the sky is falling,” but, unless Washington begins to change its financial practices, I remain worried about our future.

Am I wrong? Share your thoughts with me at gregawtry@awtry.com.

Greg Awtry is the former publisher of the Scottsbluff (Neb.) Star-Herald and Nebraska’s York News-Times. He is now retired and living in Hubbard Lake. Greg can be contacted at gregawtry@awtry.com.