“Edwards’ hometown in line for funds”

“Grant money tempting”

“Easley puts millions into Floyd account”

These headlines from articles in a recent issue of the News & Observer of Raleigh represent the tips of huge government icebergs floating in a sea of tax money and drifting into the shipping lanes of American life.

U.S. senators and President Bush have sternly admonished corporate executives — some who played fast and loose with company money — for seeking too much personal gain, failing to reveal how money was used, and using money for unauthorized purposes. But before the exalted ones carry their indignation too far, they should take aim at their own malfeasance. Politicians and bureaucrats at all government levels are guilty.

The N&O reported that U.S. Sen. John Edward’s hometown of Robbins, N.C. (pop.1,200) will receive $500,000 for improvements to its water-treatment plant. Critics have charged favoritism. But the problem is bigger than a minor ethics lapse. “The episode highlights the ways of pork-barrel politics in Washington, where clout matters and much of the action is cloaked from public view,” the N&O reported.

Members of the Senate Appropriations Committee make decisions about which porkers go to the trough, steering projects to their own states and to members up for re-election, after they have insider discussions with the noble councilors who hope to benefit. This year both Edwards and U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms each put in bids for more than a dozen water-treatment projects.

In addition to powerful politicians expropriating public money, bureaucrats in government agencies squabble over federal and state taxes, misuse funds, and confuse accountability. In another story, the N&O reveals that as “research grants have grown dramatically over the past decade,” UNC-Chapel Hill has not passed an increasing share of the loot, as overhead, to its libraries. While UNC-CH “redirected” overhead money to recruiting and building construction, state taxpayers paid an extra $1.4 million over the past four years. Former State Treasurer HarlanBoyles said about university obfuscation, the “big issue” is revealing how the monies are used and not using these receipts as a “slush fund.”

Unaccountability for public money starts with the mother lode in Washington. According to a report in National Review July 29, the General Accounting Office in 1998 audited for the first time federal agency finances. The GAO found that agencies spent a large amount of money to improvise accounting procedures and adjusted billions of dollars to make up financial statements “months after the end of the fiscal year.” Corporate finaglers go to jail for these practices.

The Wall Street Journal reported that L. Dennis Kozlowski, former CEO of Tyco International Ltd., used funds improperly to benefit himself, helped himself to a “smorgasbord of financial rewards,” and donated millions to “charities he favored,” but, our representatives, using laws they make, are doing the same things — and worse.

Economist Lawrence Kudlow and Stephen Moore, president of the Club for Growth, wrote in the Aug. 12 issue of National Review: “…a strong case can be made that when you roll together all the bad laws (farm-bill giveaways, steel tariffs, timber quotas, antiterrorism spending and refinancing failed foreign-aid programs) that have been enacted on Capitol Hill this year, Congress has been a greater depressant to the stock market than all of the corporate crooks at Enron, WorldCom, and Arthur Anderson combined.” Which brings us back to North Carolina political shenanigans.

In a shell-game to uncover money for a $14.3 billion budget and at least $1.6 billion of excess spending, Gov. Mike Easley and state legislative budgeteers are frantically moving tax money around. Easley toured Pender and Pitt counties to drum up excitement over what’s left of $836 million appropriated to help those who chose to live in floodplains. Hurricane Floyd in 1999 dumped more rain on the plain than anyone had ever seen in North Carolina. So much money rained down after the flood that more than $300 million of state money still hasn’t been spent. Easley took $150 million, just in case of a budget “emergency.” He wants to lock up the balance so legislators can’t spend it. Senate budget writers proposed spending $100 million from the recovery fund.

Well, of course.

While tempting amounts of money, easily taken from taxpayers, snow on the political system, government icebergs will continue to break from the massive glaciers of spending. And who’s counting?

R.E.Smith Jr. is a freelance writer living in Wilmington, N.C. Formerly he was associate professor at the State University of New York, and worked with the USDA in Washington, D.C.