WND EXCLUSIVE
ARE YOU 'COOKING THE BOOKS'?
Bachmann grills Bernanke over 'extraordinary' accounting measure
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Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., wants to know: How in the world has the federal government not reported any increase in the national debt in 56 days?
As Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke testified before the House Financial Services Committee Wednesday, Bachmann asked how there could be no increase reported in the total debt when the government is racking up about $4 billion a day in new debt.
"After nearly 10 years as the head of the Federal Reserve, Chairman Bernanke could not answer my question today in Financial Services Committee," Bachmann told WND.
She wondered if there's a political motive involved.
"I asked whether the Treasury Department was cooking the federal government's books as it was reported that the Feds debt balance sheet remained at $16,699,396,000,000.00 for 56 days straight, presumably so the Treasury Department wouldn't officially register that once again the Congress had exceeded its legal borrowing limits."
A debt of $16,699,396,000,000.00 would put the federal debt just about $25 million below the legal limit, according to a report in CNS.
For it to conveniently stay there for 56 straight days, Bachmann implied, strained credulity.
The lawmaker noted during Wednesday's hearing that the U.S. government added more than $400 million in debt during Chairman Bernanke's appearance alone.
"Knowing that, how could he explain the Treasury balance sheet officially stood still for 56 days? Apparently, ignorance is bliss, for bureaucrats," she concluded.
After saying he had no explanation, Bernanke suggested maybe it was one of the "unusual special measures" used by the Treasury Department "to deal with the debt limit."
He called it one of the "various things they can do" to "give some extra space" so that some expenditures are "not being counted as debt."
Bachmann said it, indeed, had been reported as an extraordinary measure, but to the average American, it looked like the government is clearly cooking the books.
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