Rep. Bachmann Calls Out Congress on Budgeting Gimmicks

Friday, August 13, 2010 11:41 AM by Lauren Forbes

Representative Michele Bachmann is leading the way to uncover hidden spending, and calling for transparency in Congress through the introduction of the Truth In Accounting Act.  Earlier this week Rep. Bachmann spoke out on AmericaSpeakingOut.com. stating that this act would require full disclosure on all spending in its annual financial report in an effort to promote honest accounting of all legislation.

Misrepresenting spending costs seems just a little too familiar. Taxpayers are still reeling from the growing price tag of the recently-passed health care legislation, where creative CBO scoring was used to discount necessary spending, such as Medicare payments known as the “doc fix.” What’s more, the Congressional “paygo” sham, which facially requires spending to be paid for, allows members to count rescissions that have not yet materialized as offsets, leading to double-counting of spending and overwhelming opacity in the true cost of legislation. These budgeting gimmicks have been continually used to trick taxpayers on the wasteful spending taking place in Congress.

We are responsible for considering spending in our personal lives and planning for the future and our government should be required to do the same.  Bachmann states, “For too long government has been given a free pass to increase spending regardless of the consequences... We want to have a full picture of America’s spending problem.” Check out her idea on ASO, and tell us what you think!

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