[forest]

If "generally accepted accounting practices" are what the law demands for both government and business, then we have the most corrupt government money can buy. Because, the problem is there is no relationship between "generally accepted accounting practices" and the way the federal government fudges its books. Another problem is that, lately, some businesses are copying the lead of government. But, government's books reek of fraud and deception.

GAO's 2001 report identified $17.3 billion in "unreconciled transactions." That's our money, folks. Hundreds of billions of dollars are unaccounted for at the Defense Department.

In fact, there is no real accountability at all for the trillions in tax dollars raised and spent annually by Congress and our entrenched federal agencies. The official 'accounting' that does take place is a sham.

The national debt has increased $1,661-Billion under Clinton, and continues to increase at a rate of $123-million per day.(2) And that's after he stuck us with the largest tax increase in our nation's history.

In truth, over the years, Congressional Democrats pilfered every federal fund. All have zero balances.

In the end it is up to the voters to get that mess cleaned up

[LuigiBasco]

[habaes corpussel]

Good post!

"Democrats continue the Clinton lie by implying there is money in the Social Security fund. In truth, over the years, Congressional Democrats pilfered every federal fund. All have zero balances. They spent all of the money they could get their hands on. Our problem is, today even some Republicans are going along with this deception."

I have said this many of times. The eight years of Clinton and Congress have done us very little. Both Democrats and many, many Republicans need to also come clean with the American people. The Balance Budget was a joke. We all knew the books were being cooked. President Bush did not start this. However, he is now unfortunately responsible for cleaning it up. The President has to come down hard on some of the Corporations but harder on Congress. As the Parties Leader he has to put his foot down with Republican Congressional Leaders. He has to start screaming bloody murder at the Congress for every singlem penny they propose to spend.

Yes it will be a long road ahead.

[Jim Robinson]

"What few people know, or cared about, was that Clinton had Robert Ruben form a stock and bond market instant response team to artificially prop up the markets. Furthermore, they had a Federal Reserve worker in the New York office playing around with billions of our dollars in overseas accounts to help insure that our markets looked good. Historically, there always has been a sliding relationship between gold, the dollar and the bond market. One could hedge and/or park capital somewhat safely in gold and/or bonds when the market got shaky. That's not true anymore. Our government, in cooperation with others, took the play out of the gold market and gold has been relatively stagnant for quite some time."

Nothing like a little multi-trillion dollar shell game. Ante up, boys.

[supercat]

If government "owes" people Social Security payments to those who have paid into the system, Social Security is in debt by something like $30B and that figure grows daily. If government does not deem itself to have borrowed such funds (thus requiring repayment) then it must be deemed to have stolen them and to keep stealing more.

Either method of accounting could be considered valid. Both, however, demonstrate gross malfeasance on the part of the government. Private corporations aren't perfect, and some are downright criminal, but I don't know of any that are nearly as bad as the government's "Social Security" program.

[Ohioan]

It is not just the idea of funny accounting, where there is a clear analogy to the Federal Bureaucracy, in the flood of Corporate scandals now breaking. The situational ethics of the Federal leadership over the past two or three generations--which is behind both the verbal rationalizations for unconstitutional Government, and the phony accounting--has also had a very corrupting effect on the public in general.

Since Roosevelt, at the least, we have seen the leaders of the Republic offering contrived rationalizations for their claimed power to do things of which the Founding Fathers never dreamed--and would certainly never have sanctioned, had the ideas been suggested. Using verbal rationalizations, they have advanced a self-seeking agenda, which is far more abusive of the rights of the people than many of the specific grievances raised by the Colonists in 1776, in rejecting the asserted power of the British Government. And what is even worse, they have gotten away with it.

This disgusting--and almost mindlessly simplistic--display of arrogant, self-serving gamesmanship--of spin doctors justifying whatever the leaders wanted to accomplish--has been going on since before most of the present generation of Corporate C.E.O.s were even born. They have never seen any other example, except briefly under Reagan, before the thrust of his Administration became diverted and factionalized.

Faced with the opportunity to loot, if they could verbally explain it as something else, some could not resist the temptation to follow the examples before them.

William Flax Return Of The Gods Web Site