Creative accounting
“The perpetrators of the budget binge — President Bush and Congress — are sacrificing the public’s long-term welfare for their own short-term political gains. In the case of Enron, the company’s long-run stability was sacrificed for inflated stock prices in the short run. In the case of the federal budget, the health of Social Security and other programs is being sacrificed for unaffordable tax cuts. The motivation is the same: the decision makers don’t believe they should be accountable for the long-run problems. Kenneth Lay walked away from Enron with millions. And the president and most lawmakers in Congress will be gone from office before the effects of the budget policies are fully felt.”
A great editorial piece about the parallels between the scandals of corporations like Enron and what’s going on with the Federal budget, and how the results will eventually be the same, especially for Social Security.
Read it here [registration required].
