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Your gov't in action.
Posted on: February 27, 2017 at 08:13:09 CT
GA Tiger MU
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Ok, inaction. Hell, just call it gross incompetence. Willful to boot. And note this little quote: "the sad fact is that our budget, as currently structured, is not sustainable." Read it.
Is The U.S. Government Insolvent? Sorry, But Its Accountant Can't Tell You
The nation's accountant says the government's books are so bad it can't even render an opinion.
Fiscal Policy: Question: What do you call it when a major organization's financial statements are so deceptive and badly kept that even its auditor refuses to render an opinion? Answer: The federal government.
That's right, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), the federal government's accountant, refused to hand down an opinion of the federal government's financial statements for 2016 "due to deficiencies that have plagued prior financial statements — persistent financial management problems at the Department of Defense (DOD), the government's inability to account for and reconcile certain transactions, an ineffective process for preparing the consolidated financial statements, and significant uncertainties."
No question that, just like Enron, if this happened in the private sector, the executives in charge would either be fired or tried for fraud, and the shareholders would suffer major losses. But U.S. taxpayers pay little attention to the problem since they don't know how bad it really is. And the sad thing is, no one does.
The Department of Defense, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Department of Agriculture were all singled out by the GAO for criticism over their financial management.
But to be fair, controls seem to be quite lax everywhere in government.
In particular, the report cites the estimated $144 billion spent by the federal government in 2016 on "improper payments," a gain of 5% from 2015. It goes on to criticize "weaknesses in internal control" over such things as information security — repeated incidents of Chinese and Russian cyberhacking and Hillary Clinton's home-brew email server come to mind — and problems with "tax collection activities."
But by far the most worrisome weakness the GAO cited is the unbridled growth in entitlements, especially Medicare costs, and the overly optimistic assumptions made in the nation's budgets about them. This failure places our ability to assess the health of our nation's future finances in doubt.
By now, of course, Americans are tired of the endless debate over the budget. The numbers are so large they lack reality. And, despite frequent claims made that fiscal Armageddon is just around the corner, it never seems to get here. So nothing is done.
Yet, the sad fact is that our budget, as currently structured, is not sustainable. And no one disagrees with that. It's a question of when we hit the wall — not if.
We're now $19.4 trillion in debt, and likely to go much higher. But how much higher is anyone's guess, since the Pollyanna-ish projections of the budget-makers are widely disbelieved.
Even so, what the Congressional Budget Office has estimated in its long-term forecast last year is still nothing short of scary.
Over the next decade, Congress' nonpartisan budget think tank foresees U.S. publicly held debt soaring from about $19.3 trillion now to $28.2 trillion. Current total debt, at roughly 105% of GDP, is already in the danger zone — and based on historical economic studies, this is where nasty things can happen. By 2032, the GAO estimates that debt as a share of GDP will surpass even the record high hit at the end of World War II.
Relentless growth in spending on entitlements is the culprit. Entitlement spending is expected to grow 68% to close to $5 trillion a year by 2026, driving spending up sharply. All told, the federal government will spend $50.2 trillion over the next decade, piling up deficits of $8.6 trillion. Thanks to runaway entitlement spending, the debt will only grow.
At some point, those who now eagerly snap up our debts will say, "No, thanks." Then we'll have serious, difficult fiscal choices to make — and very likely an ugly kind of intergenerational warfare over taxes, benefits and spending will break out.
All because we can't be honest about the problems we face, as the GAO report indicates. It's a big vote of no-confidence in the government's fiscal management when the only solid conclusion the GAO can give us is that "absent policy changes, the federal government's fiscal path is unsustainable."
Edited by GA Tiger at 08:15:24 on 02/27/17
Is The U.S. Government Insolvent? Sorry, But Its Accountant Can't Tell You
The nation's accountant says the government's books are so bad it can't even render an opinion.
Fiscal Policy: Question: What do you call it when a major organization's financial statements are so deceptive and badly kept that even its auditor refuses to render an opinion? Answer: The federal government.
That's right, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), the federal government's accountant, refused to hand down an opinion of the federal government's financial statements for 2016 "due to deficiencies that have plagued prior financial statements — persistent financial management problems at the Department of Defense (DOD), the government's inability to account for and reconcile certain transactions, an ineffective process for preparing the consolidated financial statements, and significant uncertainties."
No question that, just like Enron, if this happened in the private sector, the executives in charge would either be fired or tried for fraud, and the shareholders would suffer major losses. But U.S. taxpayers pay little attention to the problem since they don't know how bad it really is. And the sad thing is, no one does.
The Department of Defense, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Department of Agriculture were all singled out by the GAO for criticism over their financial management.
But to be fair, controls seem to be quite lax everywhere in government.
In particular, the report cites the estimated $144 billion spent by the federal government in 2016 on "improper payments," a gain of 5% from 2015. It goes on to criticize "weaknesses in internal control" over such things as information security — repeated incidents of Chinese and Russian cyberhacking and Hillary Clinton's home-brew email server come to mind — and problems with "tax collection activities."
But by far the most worrisome weakness the GAO cited is the unbridled growth in entitlements, especially Medicare costs, and the overly optimistic assumptions made in the nation's budgets about them. This failure places our ability to assess the health of our nation's future finances in doubt.
By now, of course, Americans are tired of the endless debate over the budget. The numbers are so large they lack reality. And, despite frequent claims made that fiscal Armageddon is just around the corner, it never seems to get here. So nothing is done.
Yet, the sad fact is that our budget, as currently structured, is not sustainable. And no one disagrees with that. It's a question of when we hit the wall — not if.
We're now $19.4 trillion in debt, and likely to go much higher. But how much higher is anyone's guess, since the Pollyanna-ish projections of the budget-makers are widely disbelieved.
Even so, what the Congressional Budget Office has estimated in its long-term forecast last year is still nothing short of scary.
Over the next decade, Congress' nonpartisan budget think tank foresees U.S. publicly held debt soaring from about $19.3 trillion now to $28.2 trillion. Current total debt, at roughly 105% of GDP, is already in the danger zone — and based on historical economic studies, this is where nasty things can happen. By 2032, the GAO estimates that debt as a share of GDP will surpass even the record high hit at the end of World War II.
Relentless growth in spending on entitlements is the culprit. Entitlement spending is expected to grow 68% to close to $5 trillion a year by 2026, driving spending up sharply. All told, the federal government will spend $50.2 trillion over the next decade, piling up deficits of $8.6 trillion. Thanks to runaway entitlement spending, the debt will only grow.
At some point, those who now eagerly snap up our debts will say, "No, thanks." Then we'll have serious, difficult fiscal choices to make — and very likely an ugly kind of intergenerational warfare over taxes, benefits and spending will break out.
All because we can't be honest about the problems we face, as the GAO report indicates. It's a big vote of no-confidence in the government's fiscal management when the only solid conclusion the GAO can give us is that "absent policy changes, the federal government's fiscal path is unsustainable."
Edited by GA Tiger at 08:15:24 on 02/27/17
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Your gov't in action. - GA Tiger MU - 2/27 08:13:09