Did the federal government join Enron and WorldCom in cooking the books?
Through all of President Clinton’s last two years in office, the announced level of before-tax profits was at least 10 percent too high — a discrepancy rising close to 30 percent during the last presidential campaign. Most startling, the Commerce Department in 2000 showed the economy on an upswing through most of the election year while in fact it was declining. Although a political motive for Democratic cooking of the government’s books is there, nobody — including Bush administration officials — alleges specific wrongdoing. Nor is there any evidence. Estimation in 2000 was conducted by career public servants who are doing the same jobs today (working under a highly political Democrat in the Commerce Department). Nevertheless, such discrepancy in earnings statements by corporate executives today would warrant a congressional subpoena. The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis quarterly estimates before-tax profits of domestic non-financial corporations, releasing the in
