 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 NUMBER 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 URL 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 NUMBER 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 NUMBER NUMBER 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 NUMBER NUMBER p NUMBER 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 NUMBER feet deep suppose that cat climbed up NUMBER foot and then fell back NUMBER 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 NUMBER minutes i can land that cat in hell if some people get any cheer our of a NUMBER billion debt ceiling i do not find much to cheer about concerning it congressional record june NUMBER NUMBER p NUMBER 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 NUMBER NUMBER when dirksen said the favorite sum of money is NUMBER billion a billion a year for a fatter federal payroll a billion here a billion there emd papers republican congressional leadership file f NUMBER but the and pretty soon you re talking real money is missing in another close call the new york times january NUMBER NUMBER 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 NUMBER university of texas p NUMBER 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 NUMBER 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 URL 