A blast from the past

"A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking real money."
attributed to Sen. Everett Dirksen

[BUT: from The Dirksen Congressional Center
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. ]

... Sigh. Another Urban Legend bites the dust!