Senator Everett Dirksen used to tell this story to illustrate his concern about government spending:

I remember the man who was on the wrong floor of the hospital in Peoria. He was on the floor where the baby ward was. There were little tykes squalling and bawling. The nurse came out. She had a long, dour countenance. When she got close to him the fellow said, “Nurse, what makes all those little brats squall and bawl the way they do?”

The nurse remembered that the portion of the national debt for the baby was about $1,971, and she said, “Well, Mister, if you were out of work, if you owed $1,971 as your share of the debt, and if your pants were wet you would squall too.”

[Congressional Record, September 26, 1961, p. 21382]

Today, each citizen’s share of the national debt is $39,942.84.