Economic “House of Cards” collapsing under $56 trillion burden

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Joseph J. DioGuardi, CPA

Since the original publication of my book, Unaccountable Congress: It Doesn’t Add Up in 1992, federal accounting measures still have not begun to add up. I have long tried to call attention to our inadequate federal budget, accounting, and reporting practices. Our “reported” national debt has grown from around $800 billion in 1980—which took two centuries to accumulate—to more than $12 trillion as of September 30, 2009, Read More.

Congressional Child Abuse: Send the Kids the Bill

Monday, May 12, 2003
Wes Vernon, NewsMax.com

WASHINGTON — Our “lawyer-filled Congress mismanages your money and cooks our national books using numbers like a drunk uses a lamp post for support,” and kicks the can down the road to future generations by sending the kids the bill.

That indictment was sounded in an interview with NewsMax.com by professional CPA and former Congressman Joseph DioGuardi.Read More

Feds Break Law With Enron-Style Accounting

Friday, May 9, 2003
Wes Vernon, NewsMax.com

WASHINGTON – The Enrons of the world are pikers when it comes to sleazy accounting methods. Their sins are chump change compared to the way the federal government is handling your money.

Furthermore, no less an authority than Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan agrees that the feds should change their ways to reflect “a more realistic view” of where taxpayer expenditures stand.Read More

Feds Use Enron-Style Accounting to Hide Deficit

Thursday, May 8, 2003
Wes Vernon, NewsMax.com

WASHINGTON – While federal regulators and members of Congress deliver pious preachments to corporations about dishonest accounting tactics, the federal government itself is using the Enron method of accounting. The result is the federal deficit is about three times what is officially acknowledged.

When he was a member of Congress is the late 1980s, Dio Guardi succeeded in getting legislation enacted providing for an independent chief financial officer. The only problem, he says, is that by the time the measure got through the compromises and watering down that inevitably accompany the legislative process involving 535 lawmakers, the CFO position ended up as part of the Treasury Department with some responsibilities to the Office of Management and Budget.Read More

A CPA and Former Member of Congress Dissects “The Most Expensive Credit Card in the World.”

April 1997
TODAY’S CPA
By Joseph J. DioGuardi, CPA

By now, you’ve probably filed your 1996 tax return and made your final payment on the balance due. What you probably don’t realize, however, is that you paid only part of your current balance. The U.S. government does not bill you for your part of the nation’s deficit; it leaves that to the next generation.Read More

A HOUSE OF ILL REPUTE “Ending the Credit Card Mentality in Congress: A Guide to Achieving Fiscal Discipline”

By Joseph J. DioGuardi, CPA

Some people get very excited about their fist American Express Gold Card because it gives them a $10,000 credit limit. Others need to obtain a Platinum Card and its $100,000 credit limit to feel powerful.Read More

Commentary, Our Unaccountable Federal Government: It Doesn’t Add Up

June 1995
American Accounting Association
By Joseph J. DioGuardi, CPA

By now, you’ve probably filed your 1996 tax return and made your final payment on the balance due. What you probably don’t realize, however, is that you paid only part of your current balance. The U.S. government does not bill you for your part of the nation’s deficit; it leaves that to the next generation.Read More

Congressman DioGuardi: ‘The U.S. Government Needs a Chief Financial Officer’

August 1986
Management Accounting
By Kathy Williams

This lonely account (one of only four CPAs in Congess) says there is a missing link in government: the linchpin of financial discipline.Read More

DioGuardi sets his sights on larger audience

Sunday, July 3, 1988
Gannett Westchester Newspapers
By Pamela Newkirk

WASHINGTON — For 3.5 years Rep. Joseph DioGuardi, R-New Rochelle, has ranted and raved about the nation’s shoddy accounting practices.Read More

Financial Management in the Federal Government:
A System in Crisis and Options for Reform

May 25,1988
House Republican Research Committee
By Chairman: Mickey Edwards

The United States Federal Government controls and directs cash resources in excess of $1 trillion dollars each year. Yet, at a time when Congress must make important decisions on future budget priorities and commitments, the information necessary to make such important policy decisions simply does not exist.Read More

CPA in Congress says U.S. spends without a limit

Tuesday, August 23, 1988
Intelligencer Journal
By Gary Cramer

U.S. Rep. Joseph J. DioGuardi wants Congress to stop behaving as if it had a credit card with no spending limit.Read More

PROFILE: CONGRESSMAN JOSEPH J. DIOGUARDI
A man with a vision: bringing modern management skills into the federal government

September 1986
Journal of Accountancy
By Stephen H. Collins

The problem with the federal government, according to Congressman Joseph J. DioGuardi (R-N.Y.), is that there are too many lawyers and too few accountants.Read More

Don’t Leave Home Without It

May 11, 1992
LasVegas Optic

Former New York Congressman Joe DioGuardi shows off his House of Representatives voting card which he refers to as his legislative charge card: billing future generations for today’s excessive government spending.Read More

Restoring Fiscal Responsibility

Feb 1990
New Accountant
By Joseph J. DioGuardi, CPA

Item: A 1986 General Accounting Office (GAO) report states that the federal government was using 427 separate accounting systems, of which 53 percent did not conform to GAO accounting principles and standards.Read More