A greater deception than Enron at work

We continue to hear from our leaders how healthy our economy is, though the federal debt continues to grow every year, millions are without health care and adequate education, and the dollar has steadily devalued over the past several years. In fact, the current United States deficit has grown by a reported $1.3 trillion in the past eight years, but as I'm about to detail from an article on MSN money, the actual debt is far greater than reported, and it's all on account of misleading accounting, intentionally practiced by the our elected leaders. What follows is indicative of why our political system is in need of reform.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/News/FedsBudgetTricksHideTrillionsInDebt.aspx

What's most striking is how legal all of these actions apparently are. In the past eight years our government has reportedly increased it's debt by$1.3 trillion, but when the numbers are closely examined, we're really $3.3 trillion behind in that period, for a total U.S. federal deficit of $8.9 trillion. All of this, mind you, while our elected leaders in Washington have profited handsomely over that span, giving themselves numerous tax breaks all the while. Even more disturbing is how this practice occurs.

Our government is issuing bonds to itself which have no cash backing to cover financial losses. In essence, they are crediting themselves with imaginary money to cover the exceeding debt. Bonds work as a government loan, offering cash to the government for an expected future return. In this instance, our government is simply creating the bonds and crediting them to trust funds such as Medicare and Social Security, without any real cash backing. Since the imaginary bonds accrue interest, our deficit appears less severe. Attempt to cash the bonds, and nothing is there. These bonds only have value on paper. It is an absolute joke how our leaders are able to manipulate these numbers, but this is common practice in 21st century American politics. We saw what the collapse of Enron did to our economy and the very real pocket books of all the employees and stockholders who lost everything in that scam. Now imagine what happens when Enron overtakes our government. We may see quite soon. It's the system, though, truly at fault.