Congress Cooking The Books?

According to a lot of accounting experts they absolutely are. Here is the shocking(or not) story from USA Today this morning. We all know that the Congress doesn't play by the rules that it sets for everyone else and this is just more confirmation. The budget deficit this year according to the Congress is $318 billion.

The set the government doesn't talk about is the audited financial statement produced by the government's accountants following standard accounting rules. It reports a more ominous financial picture: a $760 billion deficit for 2005. If Social Security and Medicare were included — as the board that sets accounting rules is considering — the federal deficit would have been $3.5 trillion

It sounds like Enron accounting if you asked me. I got news for the Republicans in DC...you can fool the people some of the time, but you can't fool all the people all the time. I'm very concerned about these upcoming midterm elections. Stories like these about using bogus numbers do not help. You add to this a slowing economy and rising inflation...well you have a recipe for electoral disaster. They called it stagflation back in the Carter era. I think Nancy Pelosi should start measuring the drapes for her new office of Speaker. Mind you, I hope the dems do not reclaim power, but as I'm gazing into my crystal ball, I don't see a rosy election shaping up for Republicans like 2000, 2002, 2004 etc.