Local opinion: Political claims about taxpayer savings need context

So I read in the Star that the government had gutted a program that will “save taxpayers $3 billion.”

Really? When do I get my share?

Divided by the U.S. population, I figure I should hit the jackpot to the tune of about nine bucks. I’ll watch the mailbox.

Then there was Elon Musk taking his chainsaw to the federal payroll and claiming he saved taxpayers $118 billion. OK, that number was disputed, and the actual savings may have been considerably less. But hey, that’s still lots of dough. I’m waiting for the check for my portion. Now that should be REAL money.

And, oh man, those new Trump tariffs that foreign countries were supposedly going to pay when they sold products here. What a windfall!

Hold on. U.S. companies actually pay the tariffs, and at least some of those costs can be passed along to consumers. So that TV set I bought last year from Amazon cost me an extra 50 bucks.

But wait, there’s more! Since courts eventually forced the government to refund importers, and Amazon got a check for $600 million last quarter, does that mean they are going to send my extra $50 back?

I’m still waiting.

On the other hand, whenever Washington spends another billion here or another billion there, we hear that “taxpayers are on the hook.”

Uh-oh. Does that mean they’re coming after me for my share?

As Mel Brooks famously put it, “It’s good to be the king.” Or, perhaps, President. When our Fearless Leader travels on Air Force One, it costs us $200,000 an hour. Apparently, he can decide to spend money with an executive order: adding a ballroom to the White House, building a giant decorative arch, fixing the bottom of the reflective pool and so on. Money is spent faster than most of us can comprehend it.

And how about the wall along the southern border? We hear estimates of around $46 billion dollars. Yes, that’s billion with a B. Since I live in Arizona, I surely hope they aren’t looking for me to chip in personally.

Stop.

Most of this is meaningless drivel that fills newspaper columns and newscast airtime because the numbers have become almost impossible to comprehend.

We pay our taxes, the money goes to Washington, and that’s pretty much it. Finis. Nobody sends us an itemized bill for our share of a border wall, an aircraft carrier or Air Force One. And when Washington announces it “saved taxpayers” $10 billion, nobody mails us a refund check.

Then there’s the national debt, rapidly approaching $40 billion.

OK, so what?

It isn’t coming directly out of my checking account tomorrow morning. I’m not going to have to skip Starbucks this month or cancel Hulu because my personal portion of the national debt just increased.

Skeptics love to ask: “Do you know how long it would take to spend a trillion dollars at the rate of a million dollars a day?”

I give up. Tell me.

About 2,740 years. Wow.

Numbers that large almost lose their meaning.

So, let’s try a number closer to home.

In 2025, Tucson voters rejected a proposed city sales-tax increase of one-half cent per dollar, primarily intended to fund public safety and other community needs.

If you spent $5,000 a year on taxable purchases in Tucson, that additional tax would have cost you about $25 a year.

That’s $2.08 a month.

You’d really have to cut back. Maybe one candy bar.

And that’s the point.

Whether Washington is talking about billions and trillions or Tucson is talking about a couple of bucks a month, politicians love numbers because numbers can be made to sound wonderful — or terrifying.

But somewhere between $2.08 and $40 trillion, most of us simply lose track of what any of it actually means.

They’re just numbers, folks.

Or, as Shakespeare had Macbeth say, it can all become “… sound and fury, signifying nothing.”