Andy And The National Debt

April 5, 2009 6:44 PM

Andy Rooney knows a lot of things, but he'll be the 1st to admit all those trillions in our National Debt can get a little confusing.

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by jimc623 April 7, 2009 2:57 AM EDT: Perhaps Mr. Rooney could have describe the relationship between a million, a billion and a trillion dollars this way: If he borrowed a million dollars and promised to repay the loan at the rate of one dollar per minute 24 hous a day, it would only take about eleven and a half days to repay the million dollar loan. For a billion dollars, repaying at the same rate, it would take 32 years. And for a trillion dollars, it would take 32,000 years. Do you think our chidren or our children's children will ever see this new national debt repaid?

Jim C
Surprise AZ; Reply to this comment


by miami-mpls April 6, 2009 1:34 PM EDT: Mr. Rooney as a math student in Spain, Cuba, Norway, and now in the US it baffles my mind the way Americans describe numbers. A million is a thousand times a thousand, a billion is a million times a million, in other words a 1 followed by twelve zeroes, but here in the US you don't call it 3 thousand million, you call it 3 billion, 3,000, 000,000; and the story repeats itself with larger numbers. Before I came to the US I learned that you don't get to a trillion until you have a billion times a billion. I think this one of the reasons English is a difficult language to learn; it does not follow rules, how do you explain to a 12 year old that a billion is not a billion anymore? and rules for pronouncing words, forget it, (is) and (us), is is pronounced "iz" us is pronounced "us"; a vowel followed by the consonant "s", and you get two different pronunciations, go figure and do the math, OOPS!

Ernesto Suarez, Portland, Oregon; Reply to this comment


by concerned1000 April 5, 2009 10:21 PM EDT: I was watching your program this evening about the clinics closing, it is so disgraceful that America cares more about supporting illegals and taking care of the problems in other countries, making sure they have food,healthcare,place to live etc and totally ignores the Americans in the United States.If Our politicians who decide all these programs would give all the money the US spends away on foreign nationals to the legal Americans(who supported this country) we would be able to have health care for all Americans and people would not be living in tents and on the streets. I do not understand how these people can feel good about themselves and the decisions they make. Americans needc to wake up and take control of America, it has been proven that we cannot trust any of our Government .
Iwas born and raised in a foreign country in US territory and the money goes to the countries government who inturn use the money for their own purpose and gives it to industries not to the peopl, so the US govenment is no different than than any other country. How can the US government believe they are superior to any other country?; Reply to this comment