Book Review: Unaccountable Congress: It Doesn’t Add Up

Here’s my book review for client Social Media Solutions of Unaccountable Congress: It Doesn’t Add Up. It was published at TruthInGovernment.com in August and there are several links to it on Facebook. A Google search pops me up on the first four references (although, in a quirk, Truth In Government spells my name wrong!).

Unaccountable Congress: It Doesn’t Add Up

By The Honorable Joseph DioGuardi

Tea Party 20 Years In The Making: Former Congressman Called For Citizen Action While Dealing With Government Spending Problems 20 Years Ago.  

Reviewed by Stephen J. Rossie  

If written today, former Congressman Joe DioGuardi may have entitled his 1992 book Unaccountable Congress: It Doesn’t Add Up, something akin to, The Congressional Credit Card: The Tea Party Patriot’s Guide To Truth In Government. Instead, DioGuardi, who served two terms in the House of Representatives from New York, and now seeking a U.S. Senate seat there, has re-issued it in conjunction with the 20-year anniversary of his landmark Chief Financial Officers Act, a budget accounting bill he sponsored – and done so with a rousing new forward in which he celebrates grassroots activism for accountability in federal spending.  

In fact, throughout the book, DioGuardi punctuates examples of congressional tricks, gimmicks and outright fraud with examples of citizen involvement from the earliest days of the republic. He outlines ways in which Americans can – and should – involve themselves in putting solid, common sense accounting principles and controls on Congress’ credit card. He dubs the electronic voting device used by members, “The most expensive credit card in the world.”  

But that was 1992. Washington’s fiscal mess is worse now. He acknowledges today’s citizen uprising, noting that the more dismissive the Obama administration is to the Tea Party, the more it grows; the more government he adds, the stronger its resolve. But his prescience is no coincidence. He was the first CPA elected to Congress, a partner with Arthur Andersen and recognized nationally at the top of his profession. He quickly learned in Washington that the budget process – the spending of families’ hard-earned tax dollars – was a product of dysfunction at best and, most times, chicanery and deceit.  

True to today’s Tea Party movement, he has ample criticism for both parties, but then, as now, liberal Democrats ran the House. Saddened by the loss of the House’s reputation – it was embroiled in its own internal post office and bank scandals – he coined the phrase, “House of Ill Repute,” which headlined a GOP report on the majority’s corrupt administration of the chamber. Although a straightforward writer who methodically lays out the problems and solutions to the government-spending crisis, he also zips in timely comic relief. It’s a shame it’s gallows humor.  

DioGuardi vividly and in understandable terms explains the Congressional shell games that have led to, and increased, our financial vulnerability and incompressible debt. In fact, he notes that the greater the spending, the easier it is for Congress to burry its special interest pay-offs.  

With substandard and antiquated accounting methods – cash-in, cash-out rather than the accrual method – there’s almost nothing Congress can’t hide or even make sound like a reform, and that’s the way it likes it. DioGuardi lists the “Dirty Dozen” budget tricks, including the infamous “current services budget,” whereby Congress “cuts” spending by reducing projected increases. Or guaranteeing loans that add nothing to the current year budget, only for the bailouts on the inevitable defaults to pile on to future debt. Worse still, the nefarious trick of “off budgeting” – creating an agency that pays the treasury with taxpayer money that is counted as revenue to reduce the deficit!  

Reading Unaccountable Congress resonates with lessons for today and will continue until there is a change not only of party in Congress, but also of attitude. Even though he is an unabashed small government disciple, most of DioGuardi’s reforms are non-ideological: adopting controls, two-year budgets, accurate information, transparency and modern accounting methods; separating capital expenditures and discretionary spending into distinct budgets; and sending taxpayers a readable financial statement each year with its tax forms. His approach of fiscal responsibility and financial accountability dovetails with the Tea Party, a movement not dependent on party affiliation.  

 His recounting of bailouts from years past not only recalls recent government intervention in the private sector, but frightens readers as to how Congress (and the executive branch) “solved” the problems. Hint: more debt for taxpayers. Not only that, but DioGuardi presaged the Tea Party movement in the book’s first printing by applauding the citizen storm that accompanied a sneak attempt by Congress to raise its pay by 50 percent. Thousands of Americans across the country sent Congress tea bags that read: “Read my lips: NO pay raise!” The pressure actually worked, too, for a while.  

 Whether its successor movement of today permanently succeeds may, in part, depend on whether Americans concerned with their government take to heart DioGuardi’s warnings, advice and diligence to stay informed about the inner workings of Congress. In the updated Unaccountable Congress, they can in understandable terms that inspire them to take action.