Steve Israel: “as a New Yorker I know that on the hottest ticket on Broadway has been a comedy, The Producers. The tragedy with recent…”

“as a New Yorker I know that on the hottest ticket on Broadway has been a comedy, The Producers. The tragedy with recent financial scandals is that we are running the plot line of The Producers in real life. In The Producers, the accountant, Leo Bloom, is sent to conduct an independent audit of the producer, Max Bialystock. Bialystock begs the accountant to find a way to fudge the books to enhance his earnings. So the accountant finds a way to sell 2,000 percent of stock options in Bialystock's company, losing his independence and becoming part of a scam. The difference is only on Broadway and in the movies do the accountants and CEO's go to jail. In real life, no one has gone to jail, no personal bankruptcies in senior management, no disgorgements, no accountability. Just victims who have lost it all. Unlike in The Producers, no one is laughing, not our senior citizen, not our middle class families who are watching their children's tuition funds disappear, not hard-working taxpayers who have to put their retirements on hold. The American dream is turning into an American tragedy right before our eyes and no one is laughing.”