Gilbert Gutknecht: “We ought to use the same kind of accounting that every business uses…”

On the recordApril 23, 1998

We ought to use the same kind of accounting that every business uses and every family uses. Unfortunately, we are still stuck with the old accounting standards used by Washington since 1964. I might mention a lot of people, a lot of Members who are watching this in their offices, and others, they really need to understand that in 1964 in many respects Washington changed the accounting standards. They went to what is called a unified budget, and many believe that the real reason that they did that is because they wanted to disguise the total of the Vietnamese war plus the total cost of the great society. And by taking all of that money from Social Security that was supposed to go into a trust fund and transferring that into the general fund, they made the deficit look much smaller. In the end, it is real money either way.

Said by

Gilbert Gutknecht

Republican · Minnesota

Source

govinfo.gov

Editor's note · Context

Discussing the need for updated accounting standards in government.

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Gilbert Gutknecht: “We ought to use the same kind of accounting that every business uses and every family uses. Unfortunately, we are still…”

Editor's note · Context