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Subject: "A billion here, a billion there..."
From: Rohit Khare <khare@alumni.caltech.edu>
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> Bottom line: the late Senate Minority Leader certainly would have 
> endorsed the meaning behind the phrase, but it is questionable that he 
> ever coined it.

An interesting link courtesy of the Harrow Report: there's no written 
evidence so far that Senator Everett Dirksen is the source of the 
infamous quote attributed to him. It's kind of astounding that there is 
enough general social consensus (25% of all queries makes it a *very* 
FAQ) and "eyewitness" reporting without a single written source. What 
the essay below doesn't seem to answer, though, is what the earliest 
attributed quote in print by any other writer is. I'd naturally be much 
more skeptical if the "quote" emerged after his death... RK

===============================================================
http://www.dirksencenter.org/featuresBillionHere.htm

"A billion here, a billion there . . ."

Did Dirksen ever say, " A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon 
you're talking real money"? (or anything very close to that?)

Perhaps not. Based on an exhaustive search of the paper and audio 
records of The Dirksen Congressional Center, staffers there have found 
no evidence that Dirksen ever uttered the phrase popularly attributed to 
him.

Archivists undertook the search after studying research statistics 
showing that more than 25 percent of inquiries have to do with the quote 
or its variations.

Here is what they examined: all of the existing audio tapes of the famed 
"Ev and Charlie" and "Ev and Jerry" shows, all newspapers clippings in 
the Dirksen Papers, about 12,500 pages of Dirksen's own speech notes, 
transcripts of his speeches and media appearances, transcripts of 
Republican leadership press conferences, and Dirksen's statements on the 
Senate floor as documented in the Congressional Record.

Although Dirksen rarely prepared the text of a speech, preferring to 
rely on notes, he did employ brief phrases to remind him of a particular 
turn of phrase. For example, in referring to the public debt or 
excessive government spending, Dirksen would jot the word "pothole" to 
remind him to tell the following story, on this occasion in reference to 
the debt ceiling:


"As I think of this bill, and the fact that the more progress we make 
the deeper we go into the hole, I am reminded of a group of men who were 
working on a street. They had dug quite a number of holes. When they got 
through, they failed to puddle or tamp the earth when it was returned to 
the hole, and they had a nice little mound, which was quite a traffic 
hazard.

"Not knowing what to do with it, they sat down on the curb and had a 
conference. After a while, one of the fellows snapped his fingers and 
said, ‘I have it. I know how we will get rid of that overriding earth 
and remove the hazard. We will just dig the hole deeper.'" 
[Congressional Record, June 16, 1965, p. 13884].


On the same occasion, Dirksen relied on yet another "spending" story, 
one he labeled "cat in the well":


"One time in the House of Representatives [a colleague] told me a story 
about a proposition that a teacher put to a boy. He said, ‘Johnny, a cat 
fell in a well 100 feet deep. Suppose that cat climbed up 1 foot and 
then fell back 2 feet. How long would it take the cat to get out of the 
well?'

"Johnny worked assiduously with his slate and slate pencil for quite a 
while, and then when the teacher came down and said, ‘How are you 
getting along?' Johnny said, ‘Teacher, if you give me another slate and 
a couple of slate pencils, I am pretty sure that in the next 30 minutes 
I can land that cat in hell.'

"If some people get any cheer our of a $328 billion debt ceiling, I do 
not find much to cheer about concerning it." [Congressional Record, June 
16, 1965, p. 13884].


But there are no such reminders for the "A billion here, a billion 
there . . . " tag line as there surely should have been given Dirksen's 
note-making tendencies. He spoke often and passionately about the debt 
ceiling, federal spending, and the growth of government. Yet there is no 
authoritative reference to the "billion" phrase.

The chief evidence in support of Dirksen making the statement comes from 
people who claim to have heard him. The Library of Congress, for 
example, cites someone's personal observation on the campaign trail as 
evidence. The Dirksen Center has received calls from people who heard 
Dirksen say those words, some even providing the date of the event. But 
cross-checking that information with the records has, so far, turned up 
nothing in the way of confirmation.

The closest documented statement came at a joint Senate-House Republican 
leadership press conference on March 8, 1962, when Dirksen said, "The 
favorite sum of money is $1 billion – a billion a year for a fatter 
federal payroll, a billion here, a billion there." [EMD Papers, 
Republican Congressional Leadership File, f. 25] But the "and pretty 
soon you're talking real money" is missing.

In another close call, the New York Times, January 23, 1961, quoted 
Dirksen: "Look at education – two-and-one-half billion – a billion for 
this, a billion for that, a billion for something else. Three to five 
billion for public works. You haven't got any budget balance left. 
You'll be deeply in the red." [Cited in Byron Hulsey's "Everett Dirksen 
and the Modern Presidents," Ph.D. dissertation (May 1998, University of 
Texas, p. 226]

Of course, the Dirksen Papers do not document completely the late 
Senator's comments. For example, The Center that bears his name does not 
have his testimony before committees. Their collection of Congressional 
Records ends in 1965, omitting the last four years of Dirksen's life and 
career – he might have employed the phrase only late, although witnesses 
claim he said it throughout his career. Dirksen's campaign speeches 
tended not to produce transcripts, only sketchy notes or abbreviated 
newspaper accounts. Dirksen also held center stage before the video age, 
meaning that many remarks, particularly those in campaigns, escaped 
capture.

Bottom line: the late Senate Minority Leader certainly would have 
endorsed the meaning behind the phrase, but it is questionable that he 
ever coined it.

 

 
---
My permanent email address is khare@alumni.caltech.edu


