“How could government not be operated as a business when every principle of business operation is included in government accounting and disbursements?”
I believe your assertion above to be false. I am not saying that you are dishonest, merely mistaken. Every principle of business operation is *not* followed in government accounting and disbursements. I have worked in the federal bureaucracy for decades. The most important difference is that the incentives in the federal bureaucracy are exactly opposite from what they are in private business. The incentive in government is to spend more and more and more. Saving money is only an illusion sometimes put up when more money is spent somewhere else than at your department.
I believe I am accurate, and we are not far apart. I have sent through countless budget hearings in state legislative committees.
Government, like private business, projects revenue based on tangents. Gross receipts are then budgeted to each department based first on need, then requests, and reasons for additional budget items. Business cannot expand without projected increases of revenue based upon experience, and the demonstrated need for the expansion.
The only difference between government and private business is that government has no incentive to save, only break even. both government and business can go bankrupt for not adhering to good fiscal planning and spending beyond their means.