Crooked Business Practices

July 14, 2002

by Charles E. Perry

So another business bites the dust amid massive evidence of fraud, and even Martha Stewart lies under a cloud of suspicion. What is the world coming to? President Bush gave a speech on stopping the type of fraud we’ve seen so much of lately, and he had some good ideas in it. That’s not as normal for a politician as you might think, so it was a pleasant surprise. And the Democrats response to the speech? They were mad Bush didn’t mention the bill they were debating, and Maxine Waters mumbled on about "Solomon Barney Frank," a gaffe of unusual proportions even for her.

The Democrats, of course, want to pin all this fraud on Bush. The midterm elections are coming up fast, and they still don’t have any sort of issue to raise. That has to grind on them. Even worse, every time they demand an investigation, the investigation always seems to lead back to some Democrat, and that gets embarrassing quickly. They also don’t seem to want to mention that the fraud took place, for the most part, in the 1990’s when Bill Clinton was president. Yes folks, it was the Reno Justice Department that let them all get away with it.

So, we obviously have to do something to stop this sort of thing. We can’t have companies contracting to sell widgets for the next 100 years at a bargain basement price and then list the money they hope to make over that 100 years as profit for this year. That sort of thing looks good in the annual report, but it makes stockholders mad when the fraud is exposed and the bottom drops out. People - real people - get hurt.

And that’s what I want the idiots in Washington to remember. Let’s not make this into some partisan political issue. Rather than try and beat each other to death with it, remember that it’s the people you serve, not the party. There was a nation where the people existed to serve the party. It was called the Soviet Union, and it died. It turns out that the people existing to serve the party isn’t such a hot idea. We do lots better when the government remembers that it serves the people, and not the other way around. That’s what built our prosperity in the first place.

So, idiots in Washington, take a good, hard look at what was done. Work together to come up with a way to keep it from happening again. Don’t try to bash each other with it, because that doesn’t serve the people. We are, after all, your bosses. In November, we get to decide if some of you get to stay in Washington. I’m inclined to let you. It’s not like you have the skills to do anything useful. But that inclination could change quickly, if you catch my meaning.

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Charles E. Perry is a freelance writer living in Michigan. He has done a variety of things in his life, including Ward Supervisor at the State of Michigan's Maximum Security Mental Facility. His degree is in accounting, but he discovered writing and now spends his time hunched over a keyboard, hollow-eyed, looking for just the right word. Perry is the author of "How Government Should Work: A Look at the Federalist Papers and the Constitution of the United States," currently pending publication.

Send the author an E mail at Perry@ConservativeTruth.org.

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