But we’ll never know, because that’s not how Washington works. Lawmakers would rather race to pass a bad bill and then blame others for its failings than take their time and fully discuss a bill before they pass it.

Along those lines, Gordon also points out that the American economy really took off in the 1890s when modern accounting practices became standard. And again, while politicians love to howl about the occasional corporate accounting scandal (it gives them a chance to grandstand for the cameras and pass overly-broad legislation such as Sarbanes-Oxley), it’s government that generally falls short in this arena.

“The one major fiscal area where generally accepted accounting principles and independent accountants have remained rare is in government,” Gordon writes. “The federal government -- the largest fiscal entity on earth -- still keeps its books in much the same way as it did in the nineteenth century.”

And that, of course leads to mischief. “The ‘managers’ of government -- legislators, governors and presidents,” Gordon writes, “have been able to put their self-interests ahead of those of the ‘stockholders.’” Hum. Think that applies to a president who adds more than a trillion dollars to the federal debt while promising that his projections show the country will trim its debt in half during his tenure? As Daffy Duck might put it, “It just don’t add up.”

The answer is to hold policymakers to higher standards. At a minimum, lawmakers should read the laws they pass and understand them before they vote. And they should know where the money they invest is going. Simply pouring out hundreds of billions and only asking questions months later doesn’t make sense.

This recession, like all others, will end. A bigger worry is that as lawmakers scramble today to “do something” to fix the economy, they’ll stick all of us with massive debts, high inflation and foolish laws we’ll have to live with for the rest of our lives.