Grade: F

I would say that the Bush administration couldn't be any worse if it tried, except I'm afraid they'll take me up on the challenge and prove me wrong. Still, this is pretty fucking pathetic:

Ten years after Congress ordered federal agencies to have outside auditors review their books, neither the Defense Department nor the newer Department of Homeland Security has met even basic accounting requirements, leaving them vulnerable to waste, fraud and abuse.

An Associated Press review shows that the two departments' financial records are so disorganized and inconsistent that they have repeatedly earned "disclaimer" opinions, meaning that they simply cannot be fully audited.

The Department of Homeland Security has a $35 billion budget this fiscal year and has failed every annual audit except its first one in 2003. The Department of Defense, with a $460 billion budget this fiscal year, "has never even come close to passing," and because it comprises at least 20% of all federal spending, "the entire federal government also has failed its audits since the congressional mandate took effect." Nice.

But there's no proof that American taxpayers are being robbed blind by waste, fraud, and abuse. David Norquist, the chief financial officer at the Homeland Security Department, says oh-so-reassuringly, "If you left your front door unlocked, it doesn't mean your house got robbed. But you should be concerned if your front door is routinely left unsecured."

Yeah, and if you leave your pocketbook open in front of a Republican administration with a Republican majority, you might as well go ahead and call the cops.

And, yes, btw, David Norquist is the younger brother of Grover Norquist, who once said his goal "is to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub." Making government completely ineffectual is a good start.

You gotta love Republicans: Run on the platform that government can't work, then cripple it with abject incompetence, bloated deficits, and widespread corruption, then lie back and kick your feet up amongst the smoking ruin and say to your detractors, "See?"