American has a double standard: one for government and the other for business. Over the past five years lawmakers have spent $142 billion beyond the budget through supplemental spending bills to circumvent budget caps. That is 12 times more than the fraud committed by Enron, Xerox and WorldCom combined. Private firms cannot commandeer pension funds but Congress takes $180 to $230 billion of social security funds and uses it for general operations. They have also looted other trusts of hundreds of billions of dollars. Medicare loses over $12 billion annually through errors. A total of $120 billion annually from over-all accounting errors. The GOA for the past five years has not been able to certify the government’s consolidated financial statements due to fraud. Then there is the off-budget $20 billion spent on pork barrel items. Then there is the post office that is $13.5 billion in debt and gave billions of dollars in bonuses, obviously for failure. Amtrak has lost $40 billion since its inception and is now bankrupt. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac government-backed fountains of money for housing have no SEC oversight. Then there are the trillions of missing dollars at HUD and the Pentagon. The list goes on and on. We believe if corporate fraud is going to be pursued and adjudicated then the same treatment should be given to our own government employees. When hard times come we could have a genuine tax revolt.

The govenment has one advantage that private business does not.  Government can increase it's income at will simply by a vote of the board of directors.

I think I found Imbroglio - he seems to have taken possession of Doublefeed's body!

I don't think it's a problem of "double standards" as much as it is a problem of where the media is focused.  We hear about the Enrons and WorldComs daily in the news but there is virtually no coverage of the widespread government fraud and theft.

It's pretty easy for me to sit back on my backside and say... "this country needs an enema".  It's more difficult to actually do something about it. The masses will be blissfully ignorant or decide not to notice the problems until that double latte is unavailable.

I was almost in a good mood until I read that.  What is the source 1GUNRUNNER?

I've never understood why many people are like that.  Profits are very healthy and without them there'd be no real reason to start or maintain a business.  From an employees perspective there'd be no raises without an increasing supply of money.

Are you really Imbroglio? [:)]