DioGuardi: Bring Good Accounting to Government

The government needs to conform its accounting to the same generally accepted accounting principles it requires of companies, says Joe DioGuardi, a candidate in the New York Republican primary for the Senate seat held by Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand. DioGuardi also is well known for being the father of singer-songwriter-TV personality Kara DioGuardi, a former judge on “American Idol” who recently made headlines when she decided to leave the show.

Joe DioGuardi says the federal budgetary process must be scrubbed from top to bottom.

To save America from bankruptcy, “we first need to put on the books everything that we’re spending, committing, so we can understand where we’re going,” says DioGuardi, a certified public accountant who is a former congressman.

“We have an accounting system as part of the budget process that’s a Mickey Mouse cash basis of accounting that only counts expenses when I decide to write the check,” told Newsmax.TV.

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Accrual accounting, which conforms to generally accepted accounting principles, is the only way to go, DioGuardi says.

“Why has the government exempted itself from the highest standards of accounting?” he says. The system of accounting for Social Security is a “shell game and Ponzi scheme.”

Congress must eliminate earmarks, DioGuardi says. “We need an infrastructure bank. We spend $500 billion on assets, and it’s written off as part of the deficit. They don’t put it on the books as an asset. That’s ridiculous.”

DioGuardi criticizes the new financial reform law for leaving out government sponsored mortgage agencies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The Democratic-controlled Congress omitted them, “because they didn’t want to put it on the budget, because these two entities now own $5.3 trillion of toxic mortgages,” he said. “That would probably add $2 trillion-$3 trillion to the national debt.”

As for the Muslim mosque that’s planned near ground zero, DioGuardi says the issue isn’t the legal right to build the mosque. “We know freedom of religion is important,” he says. “The issue here is the footprint of the horrific event. That building was one of those damaged.”

It must be explained to those who want to build the mosque that it’s an unnecessary provocation, DioGuardi says. “You’ve got an open sore: 3,000 people were killed,” he said.

“The families still feel the pain. So it’s very insensitive to push this into the face of these people. Everything should be done to convince the people who want to build the mosque that they should find an alternative location.”