One Man's Flimflammery is another Man's Crime

Bill Gates on-stage in CA has this to say about Government accounting practices:

The Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist said state budgets have received a puzzling lack of scrutiny and have been "riddled with gimmicks" aimed at deferring or disguising the true costs of public employees' health care and pension obligations, citing California's ongoing budget crisis as an example of creative deficit spending and the subsequent cuts to education spending as an unacceptable cost.

"[R]eally, when you get down to it, the guys at Enron never would have done this. This is so blatant, so extreme," Gates said of state governments' accounting practices generally. "Is anyone paying attention to some of the things these guys do? They borrow money -- they're not supposed to, but they figure out a way -- they make you pay more in withholding to help their cashflow out, they sell off the assets, they defer the payments, they sell off the revenues from tobacco."

Gates argued that government accounting practices should be more like private accounting.

The Enron line of course is splashy and makes the headline at the Huffington Post. I wonder though if that assessment is wholly accurate; they wouldn't because they were more upstanding guys who understood how wrong it was or they wouldn't because they knew it was a one-way ticket to pound-me-in-the...well, you know...prison.

Government accounting rules, by necessity, are different than what us little guys here in the real world have to live with. Acknowledging for a moment that this is 100% necessary and true, I'm still left to wonder how this is okay. What does it say of a government that allows itself the luxury of what it willingly imprisons it's citizens for?

If Government were a Corporation...

I've been saying it for a while, and after seeing this today have decided I'd write it as well.

If the CA legislature and executives were a corporate board, I'd sue them for corporate malfeasance. The same can be said for the dummies in DC:

The unfunded liabilities of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid already exceed $106 trillion. That’s well over $300,000 for every man, woman and child in America (and exceeds the combined value of every U.S. bank account, stock certificate, building and piece of personal or public property).

Glenn Reynolds called it political malpractice. Well, to be clear, I haven't been saying that. Better A, better B...whatever you want to call it, it's criminal and far exceeds the excesses of Enron and those other greedy, nasty Evil Corporations.

You could tax 100% of earnings of 100% of the work-force for 100 years and not even begin to scratch the surface.

Our Senator

"Can you do that by Executive Order...?"

The Senate is no place for stupid people.

This is competence?

Jobs in non-existent Congressional Districts that none can explain:

...the chairman of the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, had to inform Rep. Darrell Issa that "the board can’t vouch for the numbers submitted by recipients of stimulus funding."

Now, Ed Pound, director of communications for Recovery.gov, has stepped in it too. When asked to explain the phenomenon of stimulus-related job creation in non-existent congressional districts, Pound told the New Orleans Times-Picayune, "who knows, man, who really knows."

Remember how the other guy couldn't get anything right? If only...

Mugged by Reality

Dear Mr. President,

Your unstimulus sucks. Any chance now you'd like to try something that might actually help the economy move forward?

The New Era of Fiscal Responsibility

The full explanation of what all the pretty colors mean is here, and the first mention of Bush's piker-ness here.

What's wrong with this Picture?

Coming to a Doctor's office near You

Cash for Clunkers sounds like a good deal and it probably is. After all, if I have an old beater sitting in the driveway--and I do--why would I not like to replace it for something newer and nicer and not entirely on my dime?


Like I said, it sounds like a great deal. Though according to this, it's not working out so hot for participating dealers:

Dealers reported problems with the government’s online system to get the transactions approved by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which is running the program.

Scott Lambert, vice president of the Minnesota Auto Dealers Association, said he was “astounded” to learn at a meeting Tuesday representing about 150 Minnesota dealers that not one has had a deal approved.

“We had dealers representing 1,500 to 2,000 transactions,” he said. “We asked how many had a deal approved yet, and not one hand went up.”

Lambert said the government has created a program that’s “so big and cumbersome that it can’t find a way to accept anything. We’re sending in good, reliable deals.”

It’s nerve-racking for the dealers, he said, because they have given the customer $4,500 and now the dealers need to be reimbursed.

Imagine my shock at learning that a government program doesn't work as advertised. Now imagine applying those same industry-leading efficiencies to a government-administered health care system (in part or in toto--take your pick).

As Glenn Reynolds points out, it's almost certain they'd do a better job with your prostate.

Oops

How'd that happen?