Posted on 07/20/2002 1:35:57 PM PDT by forest
Suddenly the big news is about exaggerated earnings, disguised liabilities and the deception of all sorts of fraudulent, off-budget shenanigans. But, this time they were not talking about government. The topic was misdeeds by the captains of corporations. Businessmen!
What's going on here? Don't these guys understand that only governments may violate the law with impunity?
The answer is both yes and no. If publicly traded businesses kept their books like the federal government does, few of the corporations on our stock exchanges would be worth much of anything. But, 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.
For instance, last year, when Congress wanted to increase its bottom line, lawmakers simply shifted the date by which corporations had to make a quarterly tax payment. Which meant, they then had (on paper) an extra $33 billion in revenue to cover more spending.
"If you look at the books of the corporate world, even the fraudulent ones, they are less subject to manipulation than the federal budget is," former Minnesota Rep. Bill Frenzel, who was the top Republican on the House Budget Committee, told the Associated Press. "Members of Congress get re-elected by bringing home roads and armories and university grants and heaven knows what else. Every American wants more frugality, but only after they get their road or bridge."
Last year, Congress's watchdog, the General Accounting Office, reported that it has not been able to sign off on numerous department budgets because the bookkeeping is so terrible the books cannot be approved by auditors.
GAO's 2001 report identified $17.3 billion in "unreconciled transactions." That's our money, folks. That is our money that simply could not be accounted for. GAO's Comptroller General, David Walter, said that does not (necessarily) mean the money was stolen. It's just that government lost track of it.
Hundreds of billions of dollars are unaccounted for at the Defense Department. GAO even found that, in the last fiscal year, up to $12.1 billion in Medicare payments were paid improperly. There is government-wide negligence.
Last week, Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) published an article titled "What About Government Accountability?" Therein, he writes:
"Accounting scandals dominated the headlines last week, and publicity-hungry politicians from both the House and Senate enjoyed acting self-righteous while grilling WorldCom executives. However, the message that Congress will clamp down on corporate accounting practices rings hollow with at least one journalist. Neil Cavuto from Fox News recently offered a very important question that desperately needs to be asked of Congress: 'Who the heck are YOU to judge? Given the incredible fiscal mismanagement that pervades the federal government, Congress is throwing stones from a very big glass house,' as Mr. Cavuto puts it. It's refreshing to hear Mr. Cavuto point out the hypocrisy of politicians standing in judgment of executives whose misdeeds pale in comparison to their own reckless spending.
"Yet Mr. Cavuto is absolutely right. No corporation on earth comes close to the accounting fraud practiced year after year by the federal government. 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. Every year Congress creates a meaningless budget, the Fed prints phony money, the Budget office issues false revenue forecasts, and the administrative agencies waste billions in the most unproductive ways imaginable. Literally tens of billions of dollars go unaccounted for every year, simply disappearing down bureaucratic black holes. This hardly represents a standard against which corporations should be judged!"(1)
Indeed! It gets even worse, though. The Clinton Administration carried that fraud and deception one step further to improperly pump up the stock market. That fraudulent deception ultimately caused a recession -- as we now see. Back in issue # 213, dated January 14, 2001, we reported one major cause of how this inflation period began.
Here's what was written before Bush took office. Below is the entire article concerning major financial fraud perpetrated by the grifters in the Clinton administration. This is what helped fuel the present-day recession:
As the impeached perjurer yucks it up, disparaging Dubya's good name to groups of other card carrying socialists, let's examine his last big lie.
The Clinton cabal said it first: "It's the economy, stupid!" And so it is. The free ride is over. The chickens are coming home to roost. We've had a long period of "economic expansion," better known on the street as inflation, and now comes the recession.
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.
Little of that outwardly bothers most people on mainstreet, U.S.A. But it does stealthily raise prices significantly. Ask whoever buys the groceries at home how prices have changed during the Clinton administration. Some things have actually doubled in cost.
Many price increases were hidden, though. For instance, a Big Mac hamburger costs the same but is now the size of a little Mac. Many cans and packages that once held one pound of product now hold twelve or fourteen ounces for the same or higher price. The only reason some clothing and small household appliances have not increased in price lately is because they are made in China or some other third world country. Even so, the price may have stayed relatively the same but, in many cases, the quality greatly decreased.
Energy is also a major problem. Short of nuking all our foreign oil suppliers, it's hard to see exactly how the Clinton administration could have made a bigger mess, even if they had tried. Heating oil and propane are in short supply, gasoline prices skyrocketed and thousands of over the road truckers are going bankrupt because of the high cost of diesel fuel. On top of that, Clinton's obnoxious EPA is relentless in its quest to bother every single person in the nation about any little thing they can possibly think of.
Congress, of course, is totally impotent on these issues. Rather than take charge, they have unconstitutionally handed off their authority to the politburos of dozens of administrative agencies. Which brings us back to Clinton.
One major lie is that there is a budget surplus and they are "paying down the national debt." Clinton's own Treasury Department proves that is a lie. The supposed budget surplus will not materialize because Clinton & company threw us into a recession. 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.
Unfortunately, with Bush's choice of Christine Todd Whitman to honcho EPA, no relief is in sight there. She's about as far left on environmental issues as they come. However, it appears Bush did cajole the Fed into lowering interest rates, which will be felt favorably on the street about June. The Bush team will also correct many of the energy problems by authorizing more power plants and encouraging oil exploration to make our country more self sufficient. And, if Bush is able to ram a tax reduction through Congress, it will help to stimulate the economy and hence also to increase tax revenues.
Meanwhile, save your pennies because the economy is headed south for a while. The auto and other industries are already laying off and all prices will have to increase because truckers will have to charge more or go out of business. The problem will be temporary. But it will be very noticeable to many of us.
Luckily, we will have Bush as President. Like Clinton, were he allowed to stay in office, Gore would probably have caused a full blown depression.
Clinton is a master at propaganda, but nothing else. History will show that the scandalous Clinton presidency was a failed presidency in every parameter studied. But, help is on the way -- five more days.
[The national debt, as per the U.S. Treasury:
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.
Last week, Thomas J. Bray explained it well in a Wall Street Journal editorial:
"By 2017, the Social Security system is scheduled to begin running a deficit. By 2041, the deficit could accumulate to $25 trillion. To avoid that would require either a 25% reduction in benefits or an increase in Social Security taxes to 17% from 12.4%, experts tell us. Moreover, many Americans still think the money they have paid in Social Security taxes is sitting in a trust fund on their behalf. Wrong. The money for decades was used for general fund purposes, leaving the trust fund with a mountain of nonnegotiable IOUs from the U.S. Treasury -- to be repaid from higher taxes down the road. Talk about phony accounting."(3)
That's the federal government's accounting system: Deception and fraud.
Anyone running a business like bureaucrats operate our government would soon be in prison. Our government is to be operated "under the law," too. Except, the big shame is that there are no penalties for officeholders or bureaucrats who violate the law. Therefore, they do as they please. Now those chickens are coming home to roost. Inflation is here. Recession is here. Unemployment is high. Prices are increasing. Bankruptcies are in the news. Local, state and federal governments are all grumbling about tax and fee increases. Millions of American families are just barely making ends meet. And, many thousands of our senior citizens have lost huge chunks of their retirement fund in what were represented as good stock investments.
So, okay, ask your favorite Democrat how they like the Clinton economy now! After all, this is what he left us. Bush has not been there long enough to affect the economy much, yet.
And, as for a proper accounting by government? Rep. Paul continues:
"Of course Congress could clean up its financial mess, but ultimately it is voters who must demand accountability for their tax dollars. Remember that you give government at all levels nearly half of everything you earn. If you invested that much into a private company, don’t you think you would keep a close eye on it and demand accountability as a shareholder? The only thing we know for sure about the federal budget is that it will go up each year unless and until voters remove the politicians who insist on taxing, spending, and borrowing us to death."
Yes! Those grifters in government who violate the law through deception, deceit and political "spin" belong in prison. It is time that governments, at all level, have massive cut-backs and hire managers who are fiscally responsible. Only then may government challenge business.
1. http://www.house.gov/paul/openingpage.htm
2. http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/opd/opdpenny.htm
3. http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/tbray/?id=110001994
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
"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.
Nothing like a little multi-trillion dollar shell game. Ante up, boys.
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.
Ain't that the truth!
Now we see the whole of the liberal propaganda machine trying to pin the business and government accounting scams on Bush and Chaney. They completely discount the fraud of the Clinton administration. Worse yet, there are a few nitwits on that street who are actually starting to believe that claptrap.
So, excuse me if I cheer every time I hear that the many of the liberal media corporations are slipping towards bankruptcy. That may be the only way we can stop the steady assault of socialist propaganda on the American people.
No, it's more like $30 trillion. Allow me to illustrate:
First Sleazo Bank collects $10 in deposits from each of 100 people ($1000 total) and gives $15 to each of 50 ($750), lending the other $250 to another branch. The next year, it takes in $20 from each of 100 people ($2000 total) and pays out $15 to each of the original depositors ($1500 total), lending another $500 to the other branch. The next year, it takes in $30 from each of 100 people ($3000) and gives $25 to each of the previous year's depositors ($2500); again $500 goes to the other "branch".
What matters is not just that the desposit branch of Sleazo Bank lent $1250 to another branch; what matters more is that the deposit branch owes $3000 to its current depositors, $1750 of which it doesn't have in any form whatsoever.
Social Security is a little more complex, to be sure, but the essential aspect is that is significantly in debt to its participants, and the only way it can ever get out of such debt is by acknowledging to current investors that they will get a negative rate of return. Of course, it's much easier to just ignore the problem and pretend that the $30T of totally unsecured (and unacknowledged) debt does not really exist.
Prior to this CPI change, there was an article in the newspaper that Clinton wanted to tax private home owners an amount that they would pay IF they were renters! From all appearances, everybody ridiculed his idea & people forgot about it, never knowing it was being written into law...the CPI.
The only thing I have found on Internet is a government document. Yeah, one of those.
Way down in it, this renters' tax is mentioned. There is also mention of implementation being experimental and discretionary.
My own County is taxing private property owners an additional 2.78% (for 2002 - the tax fluctuates) over and above our 10% valuation. Why? According to the government, because our County has more than a 20% poverty rate!
The Tax Assessor talks above and around any questions on why the federal government is dictating to local communities. Letters to our State Senator - he's just as clueless as we are.
I sure would love to know more, especially in that this is an election year.
I went looking for that, but found nothing. Please send information. Or, post it here.
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
However, I do have a long document, Statistical Programs. http://216.239.33.100/search?q=cache:_YieAfcZqdgC:clinton4.nara.gov/media/pdf/00statprog.pdf+rent+equivalent+CPI+experimental+2002
It's the strangest gov't thing I've ever read: pg 55 "Finally, the present CPI program does not have samples of many consumer durables large enough to support direct adjustment of prices for changes in item quality using the method known as hedonic regression analysis."
...hedonic regression analysis - they're going to regress our pleasures ;)
The last page 63: "In light of such issues, OIRA's Statistical Policy Office formed a working group under the auspices of the Interagency Council on Statistical Policy to undertake a thorough review of available options for improving the measurement of income and poverty. The working group has identified research currently underway on the issues raised in the NRC report, as well as issues still needing attention. Using the initial findings, the working group has coordinated closely with the Census Bureau to advise its development of experimental poverty measures that incorporate relevant NRC recommendations. The Census Bureau issued an initial report, Experimental Poverty Measures, 19911997, presenting alternative experimental poverty measures in July 1999 as a constructive first step in the development of improved measures of income and poverty. Over the next few years, poverty experts and the public will have an opportunity to scrutinize, comment upon, and suggest ways to improve the experimental measures."
There are other documents that mention county tax assessors of selected areas applying an additional amount to homeowners' property tax bills - at the assessors' discretion. And nobody wants to talk about this, probably because most don't know about it, and, if they did, they cannot understand it!
To me, it is dereliction of duty to not fully inform the taxpaying public.
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