March 4, 2009
Congressional Child Abuse: Send The Kids The Bill
The following was first said by me about Congress in 1992, from my book Unaccountable Congress:
“New York proved the point: dishonest accounting and financial management systems lead to big problems. Congress and the State of New York fixed the Big Apple’s problems by insisting on the use of the rigorous GAAP standards. But Congress has been far less willing to impose the same tough standards on its own spending, lending, and guaranteeing, and on its own flock of GSEs. And so, when calamity overtook the Farm Credit System and the thrift industry, a large part of the federal government’s response was to concoct accounting devices–either to make it appear there was no problem or, failing that, give the impression that the problem was solved.
“It should be clear by now that we as a nation cannot tolerate this kind of dangerous deception in our public accounting. The crises described in this chapter alone are enough to boggle the taxpayers’ mind, as well as clean out his or her wallet. But, alas, there is more. There is the whole matter of federal retirement and pension systems, starting with the granddaddy of them all, Social Security.”
I called it Congressional Child Abuse, since we’re sending our kids that bill.
Comments