Remember those words from George W. Bush during his campaign of 2000? He was referring to the federal government’s Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) as “good enough for them” and it was a first step in his haphazard plan to reform Social Security before he screwed it all up by failing to explain how the government is stealing from this supplementary retirement system.

Well, on September 7, 2006 the Federal Diary reported that Barclay Global Investment has once again been awarded the contract to manage the TSP. This isn’t much of a surprise since this British bank has been managing that investment plan since it was instituted in 1988. Our own government outsources.

What is a surprise is that the article pegs the current TSP holdings at $186 billion when the “real” trust fund list shows it at only $63.5 billion at the close of fiscal 2005 (see the government’s real trust funds). There is something seriously out of whack here. Is Arthur Anderson still auditing this account?

Did the Federal Diary make a mistake or a typo? Are there hidden funds somewhere that only insiders know about? Is it possible for a not-for-profit organization to carry cash from one fiscal year to another without a trust fund? Are they not listing other trusts or TSP investments made under some other name? Am I simply missing a $122.5 billion difference that’s nothing to sneeze at and much more than could be raked in during a single year.

This discrepancy fits with other outlandish numbers the Treasury reports such as the Federal Employees Life & Health account that never has any income, spends hundreds of millions every month, and increases the more taxpayer money is spent. The most bizarre bit of accounting ever recorded and the most flagrant use of “special” nonmarketable debt only taxpayers can pay off.

On the same day, September 7^th, the same organ of government news reported that federal employee benefits for eye and dental care are being increased. Isn’t that nice? While people in the public sector are doing without or having their benefits restricted to less than border-breakers receive, the federal employees living off taxpayer dollars are getting better and better benefits.

Also on the same day, the Federal Diary published an article titled “Corps of Engineers Lacking Flood Plan” that’s loaded with admissions.

You will recall that Bush delivered a stirring speech in Jackson Square shortly after Katrina in which he promised to “rebuild New Orleans bigger and better than ever in the greatest reconstruction effort the world has ever seen,” then backed off that promise waiting for the local people to come up with a plan because, after all, it was their city.

When the “locals” said they wanted the levees designed, built, and maintained by the Federal Corps of Engineers, rebuilt to withstand a Cat 5 hurricane and estimated costs at $22 billion (less than Bush borrows every month for his own personal crusade) – Bush promised them six billion. This prompted the governor to say “you can’t solve a $22 billion problem with $6 billion.”

Surprise! The Diary article says that the Army Corps has spent only one billion during the last year in an attempt to bring the levees back to the condition they were in before Katrina. This is described as the "piecemeal" approach to protecting a major city and certainly not "the biggest reconstruction effort the world has ever seen," especially when Dick Cheney's daughter is helping Halliburton subsidiaries spend more than that every month in Iraq.

Elsewhere, the Corps has admitted that the sheet pile used in these levees, a perfectly adequate construction material, is buried only twenty feet in the soft sediment of Southern Louisiana and to truly work need to go down fifty to sixty feet in order to reach the kind of bedrock that would better support them.

So much for Bush promises.

To top it all off, my own hometown of Rockford, Illinois, was hit by a major rainstorm on Labor Day that flooded some 680 homes and affected hundreds of others with life threatening damage. The local Fire and Building Departments moved in immediately to protect people and local electrical and other contractors were right behind them to volunteer aid in assessing damage and helping people. Even the State Treasurer, who's in a race for the governorship, promised low interest loans for home repair. But the city then turned to FEMA for financial support in what has been declared a "natural disaster." Lotsa Luck.

A year ago, on September 26, 2005, I wrote a satirical article called "Beavers to the Levees" that might be easier to take now that a year has passed, except for the people of Rockford of course.