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it would help if the government was forced to accrual accounting. That would help measure the long term costs. It would also get rid of SOME of the accounting games. The mandatory 20% withholding on distributions is a classic example. it was my understanding that law was passed to make a budget back in the day "work". It did this because it meant some part of the taxes on retirement distributions got paid in the current year instead of the following tax season. But in the aggregate all it did was move future revenue into the current year. It never increased total revenue. It also was a one time "fix" as after then the move from the next year was offset by the loss of the previously moved revenue. A business working on GAAP accounting could never goose its income statement one time by increasing its pre-paid revenue.