One of the reasons federal spending has spiraled out of control in recent decades is that neither the public, nor the Congress, has any idea what the huge budget numbers really mean.

Per capita income in the United States now stands at approximately $33,070. It’s higher in most urban areas. In the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area, for example, the most recent figure from the Census Bureau, for 2009, was $39,514.

A couple earning two or even three times that amount—that is, about $79,000 per year, or even $118,000 a year—knows what they can afford to buy. They also know what they can’t afford to buy. And most people budget accordingly.

But this same couple has no idea what a trillion dollars will buy—let alone $3.5 trillion, the amount the federal government will spend in the 2011 fiscal year. There is no way for anybody—from the typical wage-earner in the DFW area to the chairmen of the House and Senate budget committees—to really comprehend such numbers.

There’s also another important reason for government’s out-of-control spending.

Read more here from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.