[Ragtime Cowgirl]

$3,400,000,000,000 (Trillion) of Taxpayers' Money Is Missing, 1999 Wash. Times article re. 1998. Accountability is loonnnnggg overdue.

[the_Watchman]

This would seem to show a good trend! Just a few years ago it was trillions. Now, it's only billions. :)

[FormerLurker]

3.4 TRILLION IS MISSING?

And to think People are robbed of the fruit of their labors in order to donate to this little charity called the FED....

[Zack Nguyen]

Thanks for recalling that article. The government is simply a mess.

Frankly, what we need is a President who says, "I will not tolerate financial mismanagemnt of the people's money", and begins breaking arms, like for instance shutting down programs that cannot account for the money given them. A few programs get zeroed out, a few thousand people are out of work, and the rest would begin to shape up.

[DennisR]

The problem is that when a politician looks at a number such as $3,400,000,000,000, his/her brain activity stops after seeing the first two numbers: a three and a four. They then think to themselves, "Wow...three is a pretty small number, and so is a four. So I do not see any problem here." These people are politicians, not mathematicians. So they have absolutely no idea how much money they are wasting. And the money they extort from us now is never, ever enough.