“Nobody tell the president/Congress what number comes after a trillion”

The United States’ federal debt limit was $2 trillion in the early 1980s. One Congressman joked in 1985: “What comes after a trillion?” A quadrillion is one thousand trillion.
 
In 2009 and again in 2010, the United States ran annual deficits of over a trillion dollars. “Don’t Tell President Obama What Comes After A Trillion” was a saying put on bumper stickers, T-shirts and other gift items, criticizing the president whose administration contained the large deficits. In October 2010, Republican speaker and former Alaska governor Sarah Palin told a California audience: “Nobody tell Barack Obama what number comes after a trillion.”
 
 
Wiktionary: quadrillion
1. (US, modern British & Australian, short scale) A thousand trillion: 1 followed by fifteen zeros, 10(15 power).
2. (dated, UK, Australian) British & Australian, long scale. A million trillion: 1 followed by twenty-four zeros, 10(24 power).
     
Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Origin of QUADRILLION
French, from Middle French, from quadri- + -illion (as in million)
First Known Use: 1674
   
Superstore.WND.com
DONT TELL OBAMA WHAT COMES AFTER A TRILLION
Magnetic/Easy-Off Adhesive Bumper Sticker
     
26 September 1985, Miami (FL) Herald, pg. 19C:
Noting the latest lifting of the federal debt limit to $2 trillion, “What comes after a trillion?” asked one perplexed Congressman.
   
3 November 1992, Fort Worth (TX) Star-Telegram, pg. 21:
On his watch, the national debt has ballooned to $4 trillion dollars (What comes after a trillion? A zillion?) and hundreds of thousands of people have lost their jobs.
       
Rude Awakening 
Thursday, May 8th, 2008…6:15 am
What Comes After A Trillion?
By Eric J. Fry
The supply of newly-minted dollars bills has doubled since George W. Bush took his first oath of office.
 
Diesel Truck Resource Forums
stinkindiesel   
06-02-2009, 10:34 AM  
My prayer: “Please, God, don’t let Obama find out what comes after “trillion”. Amen”
   
The American Spectator
Please Don’t Tell Obama What Comes After a Trillion!
By G. Tracy Mehan, III on 7.14.09 @ 6:07AM
My daughter who lives in Wyoming called my attention to a bumper sticker, white letters on a black field, bearing the message, “Please don’t tell Obama what comes after a trillion!”
 
AlterNet
10 Horrifying Racist Attacks on Obama
Surely the past months of 2009 will go down in history as the “summer of hate.”
September 21, 2009
(...)
And that it is how former House Whip Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., chose to illustrate the challenges facing conservatives in the Obama era. Friday, AlterNet’s Adele Stan reported Blunt’s words to the conservative Values Summit:
(...)
He went on to say that he recently saw a bumper sticker he liked that read: “Don’t let Obama find out what comes after a trillion.”
     
Zazzle.com
Don’t Tell President Obama What Comes After A Trillion
Customized Letterhead
Product id: 199911945406523833
Made on 10/10/2009 2:02 PM
 
Los Angeles (CA) Times - Top of the Ticket blog
Sarah Palin pleads: ‘Nobody tell Barack Obama what number comes after a trillion’
October 18, 2010 |  1:34 am
Sarah Palin, that reputed Republican rebel who’s supposed to be at odds with the national party, swung through California this past weekend to rouse Republicans at a Republican National Committee rally in Anaheim.
(...)
Palin’s full remarks are just below here in video.
 
Palin said, please, nobody should tell the Democratic president what number comes after a trillion. (It’s quadrillion.)