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Cooking
America's Books
July 13, 2002
By Eric Munoz
"Every American who pays income taxes
will get tax relief and the average relief for a family
of four with two children will be $1,600."
— George Bush, at his Feb.5, 2001 photo-op
The White House Budget office has just revised its deficit
numbers again. Upwards, again. It seems this fiscal year,
the federal government will run up a deficit of some $150
billion, about $530 per every man, woman and child. Or $2120
for a family of four. Little chance we'll see the ex-Governor
of Texas inviting those families back for another photo-op,
this time handing them a bill for $2100. To paraphrase Mr.
Bush's Feb, 2001, press briefing, twenty-one hundred dollars
is a lot of money, that's one year's tuition and books at
a community college, that's one month's mortgage and a car
payment, that's about 30 months of electricity for a California
family and that's gas for two vehicles for three years.
Bush supporters will contend that he never intended to face
a national emergency, a "war" on terror, or a recession. But,
on February 28th, Bush explicitly said his budget sets aside
$1 trillion for the unexpected. "We should approach our nation's
budget as any prudent family would, with a contingency fund
for emergencies or additional spending needs," he said. Rabid
right-wingers will blame Bill Clinton's infidelity or his
ego, citing a permissive culture or something. But the truth
is George W. Bush sold the American public on a cooked set
of books.
Much like the much maligned, and deservedly so, corporate
crooks now on the spot, George Bush based his budget on money
that wasn't there. The same methodology that inflated stock
prices, unrealistic future revenues, fake revenues or undisclosed
costs, drove the unsuspecting public to buy into the market.
With no real check on the securities issuers and analysts
[Gingrich's Contract with (Corporate) America made sure of
that by ramming through 'litigation' reform over President
Clinton's veto, and the republican congress furthered that
effort by stifling President Clinton's SEC Chair Arthur Levitt's
attempts to separate auditing and consulting services], corporations
like Enron, WorldCom, Tyco and the rest were able to fool
the public into thinking everything was just peachy. Of course
each company had its own way of 'cooking' the books, but the
intent was always the same: inflate revenues, current or expected,
or deflate expenses to bump up the stock price. Under Bush's
tax cut plan, revenue forecasts for the next decade or so
were based on the rosiest scenario, while outlays were calculated
to grow modestly, and did not take into account population
growth or inflation.
Of course, Mr. Bush did promise to run this country like
a corporation, and that he certainly has. While the rich stand
to reap the most from tax reductions, the poor suffer the
most through a drained federal account. Much like the Kenny-Boy
Lays and the Bernie Ebbers of the Wall Street crime scene,
the upper 1% in income will make out like bandits, while the
little guys and the poor will be holding the bag. Ken Lay
and Bernie Ebbers will walk off with hundreds of millions
of dollars, while their worker's pension are wiped out. For
all of his rhetoric in New York earlier this week, not one
of these crooks will likely face any jail time. Tens of thousands
of lives are and will be affected,
Meanwhile, a poor, developmentally disabled 16 year-old kid
in LA is brutalized while being arrested after his father
was stopped for driving with a suspended license.
Call me crazy, but there is something seriously wrong with
this picture. But then again, this is a whole new world and
there are terrorists out there waiting. So just move along
folks while these guys keep us "safe."
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