Roy Cooper: “This is called The Financial Report of the United States Government. It is an official U.S. Government document. You can…”

“This is called The Financial Report of the United States Government. It is an official U.S. Government document. You can get it on the Web if you go to the U.S. Treasury Web site. It has an introductory letter by the Secretary of Treasury, who is now Henry Paulson, a former Goldman Sachs investment banker. This document interests me, if is not that long, it describes all the Federal document, but it is the only government document that uses modern, business-like accounting. Every business back home in our districts, every business with revenues over $5 million, is required by law to use this accounting. That is what businessmen and women and Rotary Clubs, Lions Clubs, Optimist Clubs all over America understand. And they are pretty shocked when they learn that the Federal Government doesn't abide by those accounting rules. We cook the books. We pretend that we can just use what is called cash accounting, which is very simplistic. Only the smallest businesses in America are even allowed to use that. But here the Federal Government with a budget of $3 trillion a year uses cash accounting. This is the President's budget. This is what it looks like. You can also get this on the Web. But it won't tell you anywhere in this document they are using simplistic cash accounting. They want you to believe that you are getting the true story.…”