Joe Pitts: “a crook is a crook whether he is dealing drugs in an alleyway or cooking the books to cheat employees and shareholders.…”

“a crook is a crook whether he is dealing drugs in an alleyway or cooking the books to cheat employees and shareholders. If someone commits a crime, they should do the time, and I am glad to say we have a President who understands this. Yesterday, President Bush went right to Wall Street to tell corporate America to clean up its act, and I believe they will. We should all be clear about one thing, the vast majority of America's corporations are run by honest and trustworthy people. For every Enron and WorldCom, there are thousands of companies who have done nothing wrong at all, but when it comes to corporate executives who are willing to cheat their own employees out of their retirements just to add a couple of dollars to their stock prices, in those cases, we should have zero tolerance. Somehow, during the 1990s, some executives decided it was okay to cook the books a little. Well, it is not okay to cook the books, and America's executives need to know if they do cook the books this government is going to come down on them hard. I applaud the President for his leadership.”