How much is $400 billion?
It's 400,000 millions. Or 400 million thousands. Or 4 billion hundreds. Any way you count it, says the conservative Heritage Foundation, $400 billion is the "low" estimate of what taxpayers are likely to pay over the next 10 years if Congress and President Bush add prescription drugs to Medicare as an entitlement.
As the late Republican Sen. Everett Dirksen of Illinois said, "A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking real money."
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"The difference between Congress and drunken sailors is that drunken sailors are spending their own money." - Rep. Tom Feeney (R-Fla.), when asked by FOX News Channel's Bill O'Reilly if he had learned anything from a publicly funded study on political conservatism.
ONE MAN'S NANTUCKET
"He began the day with his usual intelligence and national security briefings. He also met with staff on a number of issues. Then he cleared cedar and is going for a run." - White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan, giving us a glimpse of the typical day of President Bush's "vacation" at his ranch outside Crawford, Texas.
FAMILY AFFAIR
National Stonewall Democrats are denouncing the Senate Republican leadership for pushing to further codify marriage discrimination in federal law.
Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), in a 12-page policy paper published by the Republican Policy Committee, warns that same-sex "marriage" is a "threat" that must be dealt with by the U.S. Senate. Or at least that's how the Stonewallers interpret it.
The paper titled "The Threat to Marriage from the Courts" offers a strategic road map on how to curb marriage equality and says that nothing "will stop determined activists and their judicial allies (but) a constitutional amendment."
"Senate leaders should be adequately addressing inequality, and not publishing 'how-to guides' on how to discriminate against millions of Americans," says Dave Noble, the NSD's executive director. "It seems that all Republicans can do lately is find new ways to attack our families."
He's not referring to traditional families.
National Stonewall Democrats, if you didn't gather, is the leading national organization of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Democrats, with more than 70 local chapters across the nation.
TEACHING THE ABCs
Harvard anthropologist Edward C. "Ted" Green, a supporter of the "ABCs" approach to preventing AIDS, has been appointed to the President's Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS.