I’ve just been exposed to Walter J. Burien and his incredible information concerning Comprhensive Annual Financial Reports (CAFR) of governmental entities.
To put it very very simply, he claims that government entities (such as the fed, state governments, county, and city governments) keep 2 sets of books. One set is the set that they use to show us taxpayers that they use to justify tax increases, the other set of books, (claims Burien), shows the truth of the real income and liquid assets that these governments have.
He generally claims that most governments in this country are so wealthy that they could stop taxing us for the next couple of decades.
I dunno, guys, I heard on NPR a few weeks ago that the Justice department does just that (keeps 2 sets of books, I mean; NPR didn’t say anything about Roswell).
One set shows how many hours their lawyers actually work (lots more than 40 hrs/week), which they use to get more money from Congress. The other set shows that all the lawyers work 40 hours a week, so that they don’t have to pay them overtime.
I know it’s hard to feel sorry for lawyers, but in this case, I do, at least a little.
Well, I’ll be the first to acknowledge that book-cooking and government have gone hand-in-hand since time immemorial. Just look at that Indian Trust Fund craziness that’s been going on: something like forty billion dollars not paid out over a century and absolutely no accounting for where it went.
But having read the main story in the above link, I can’t help feeling a little undersold. Certainly at least some other wet-behind-the-ears Mr. Smiths have found out about these massive holdings and tried to get at them? What is all this money doing besides “escrowing?” I’d like to hear those stories in conjunction with these allegations.