I am outraged at the selfish interests of corporate greed and Wall Street incompetence that caused innocent people to lose nearly all of their investments, not to mention the crushing losses to their pension funds.

But it's beyond outrageous to see congressional committees and posturing politicians pointing fingers at accused corporate and Wall Street executives when the Congress has failed American taxpayers -- stockholders in the public corporation called the United States government -- for as long as I can remember.

The parallels are most disturbing. The relationship between Enron and Arthur Andersen is not so different from the ongoing relationship between the Congress and the General Accounting Office (GAO). WorldCom and other corporations' juggled books combined aren't nearly as severe as the way Congress cooks the federal budget. And worse, the political parties have conned taxpayers far more than Wall Street brokers and analysts ever did to investors -- by trillions, not billions of hard-earned dollars.

Question is, when, if ever, are we going to hold our elected representatives and our government to account for the perpetual greed, waste and incompetence that plagues the system? Indeed, watching the corporate congressional hearings is almost like watching blatant embezzlers of public funds holding court over petty thieves.

Daniel B. Jeffs, founder
The Direct Democracy Center