GAO: If Gov’t Were A Business, ‘Our Stock Would Be Dropping’ And We’d Need A ‘Major Shake-Up’

[swag]

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/12/18/gao-chief-stock-dropping/

In a speech yesterday at the National Press Club, GAO Comptroller General David Walker said:

If the federal government was a private corporation and the same report came out this morning, our stock would be dropping and some people would be talking about whether the company’s management directors needed a major shake-up.

“The federal government’s total liabilities,” Walker explained, “translates into a de facto mortgage of about $455,000 for every American household and there’s no house to back that mortgage. In other words, our government has made a whole lot of promises that, in the long run, it cannot possibly keep without huge tax increases.”

. . .

In his speech, Walker said, “I have become increasingly frustrated by the widespread myopia, tunnel vision and self-centeredness in Washington DC.”

Illustrating Walker’s point, President Bush — while discussing the economy yesterday — did not reference the Treasury Department’s new report. “Rather, he touted the economic merits of tax cuts. ‘I’ll veto any tax increase,’ he said.”

[ShadowLiberal]

1. If government were a business we'd have gone banrupt like 20+ years ago

Seriously, it's not too hard to make fun of how the government would work if it was a business, this is how a meeting among top executives about changing the prices of products (taxes) and expanding the company (new funding for expensive programs) would go.

CEO: Our accountants tell us that we're spending $400 billion dollars more then we're earning right now, so what should we do about it?
Man #1: We've gotta lower our prices, so we can get even more customers!
CEO: But we're barely making any profit off of our sales after paying for the labor and materials to build our products.
Man #2: Lower the prices anyway, then we'll get more customers to fix our financial problems, and our current customers will buy more.
CEO: But we already have 300 million customers, and aren't likely to expand anymore then that, we've got over 95% of the market.
Man #1: Lower the prices anyway, it'll solve all of our problems.
Man #3: And while we're at it lets expand our company some to get new business, so how should we do it?
Man #4: I know, lets dump millions of our products in Iraq well below the market price to drive them out of business, then jack up the prices.
CEO: But our internal studies show that the Iraqi's aren't interested in our products.
Man #1: They will be once we cut our prices in half for everyone.
Man #5: And while we're at it lets give free health care to some lucky customers.
CEO: How will that earn us more money?
Man #5: Oh it won't really, it will just make our customers like us more, and if our customers like us then the board of directors and stockholders could hardly fire us now could they?
CEO: I don't think you guys understand, we're dangerously close to bankruptcy, it's amazing that anyone is even willing to loan us money still.
Man #1: Lowering our prices will solve that problem.
Man #5: As will expanding the company!

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That's exactly why we need a balanced budget amendment, so politicians can't just avoid making the hard decisions and push the cost onto future generations and run up billions or even trillions of dollars in debt.

[Romulox]

2. One of the reasons Democracy is a failure is that voters realize they can vote themselves benefits

at the expense of future generations.

[blondeatlast]

3. The guy who traded Sammy Sosa is in charge.

That alone should have disqualified him from consideration.

Bush voters: stupid, stupid, stupid.