The Private Equity Presidency: Debt for Us, Assets for Them

The Private Equity Presidency has an elegant accounting trick: list the public as the asset, then send the public the bill. In the America Inc. version of government, the public balance sheet gets debt, cuts, weakened workers and stripped services, while the insider ledger gets deals and a chance to cash out. The public is both the portfolio being managed and the customer told to pay up. That is not an audited finding about who runs the country; it is the warning packed into this deal-making premise.

So let’s see the return. If taxpayer money and public services are treated as value to be acquired, managed and monetized, the people supplying that value deserve to know what came back—and who approved the terms. A country is not a private portfolio, and “CEO of America Inc.” is no substitute for public accountability. If the invoice belongs to everyone, the accounting should be open to everyone.