Posted on 08/08/2002 10:32:33 AM PDT by kattracks
Figures on corporate profits were wildly overstated by Clinton administration statisticians during 1999 and 2000, a government report issued last week reveals, begging the question of whether the feds engaged in the kind of bottom-line book-cooking that has recently seen a number of corporate executives being led away in handcuffs.
"The Commerce Department's painful report last week that the national economy is worse than anticipated obscured the document's startling revelation. Hidden in the morass of statistics, there is proof that the Clinton administration grossly overestimated the strength of the economy leading up to the 2000 election," reports nationally syndicated columnist Robert Novak.
Starting in 1999, as the report by Commerce's Bureau of Economic Analysis makes clear, before-tax business profits were overstated by a factor of 10 percent. As the presidential election drew closer, that discrepancy skyrocketed to nearly 30 percent.
The bogus figures gave the U.S. electorate a false picture of a thriving economy, allowing Clinton's would-be successor Al Gore to campaign as the rightful heir to "the longest economic boom in American history" when in fact the economy had been heading into the tank for two years.
Clinton Under Secretary of Commerce Rob Shapiro dismissed the notion that the distorted figures represented any kind of Enrongate-style fraud, insisting to Novak, that the agency's Bureau of Economic Analysis is "the most non-political, non-partisan agency in the government."
Still, Novak's report has more than a few in the business community wondering when those who presided over the government's fraudulent bookkeeping will be held to the same level of accountability as executives from WorldCom, Tyco and half a dozen other corporate giants now under investigation.
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
never. Congress makes the laws, including one that apparently puts a briber in jail while the Congressman bribee goes free.
It is my understanding that the Clinton administration changed the way that many statistics were kept...things like unemployment. It is possible that they cooked the books in many ways.
Just like the "most ethical Administration". Another lie from his enablers.
This is my recollection too. I vaguely remember that they changed the way inflation is calculated. I thought at the time that it seemed sneaky. I can't remember the details of what was changed, though. I try not to remember too much of the Clinton years since it tends to make me mad.
Clinton and Gore promised us huge surpluses for at least a decade, you mean it aint so????? Course I use to believe in the tooth fairy.
Clinton and Gore promised us huge surpluses for at least a decade, you mean it aint so????? Course I use to believe in the tooth fairy.
This story REALLY should be front page news.
How much tin foil would I need to espouse that the DNC and Clinton cronies helped orchestrate the Florida scenario because they knew: A) The economy was on borrowed time and better to have Bush in White House than Gore; and B) it effectively removes Gore from the list of serious future presidential candidates?
Check out post #24 on this related thread: Clinton-Cooked Books? (Sorry - I don't know how to direct a link to a particular reply.)
Interesting thought. It probably didn't play out this way, but it would be an interesting strategy to sabotage the next administration (if the sitting president has already had 2 terms, what does he care?). Just inflate all the numbers for your last 2 years in office, and make yourself look real good (legacy!). Then, when the next president gets in office and tells the truth, he looks real bad by comparison (legacy!).
I always suspect the worst when it comes to Clinton, but I doubt that this scenario actually went through his head.
Sheesh. Next you'll be telling me the War on (Some) Drugs is just a way to fill prisons, make jobs, radically expand the power of the federal government and shred the Constitution.
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