ABOUT THE CONFERENCE

Truth in Government, a non-profit watchdog organization founded by former U.S. Congressman, first practicing CPA ever elected to Congress, Joe DioGuardi, will host the USA Citizens-Heroes Conference on
Thursday, January 9, 2025, at 3:00 PM EST.

The virtual event, accessible via Zoom, will bring together leading fiscal experts to shed light on the actual level of U.S. federal government financial liabilities.

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Conference Highlights

The conference aims to inform the public and press about the true extent of U.S. financial obligations, which speakers assert could range from $100 trillion to as high as $200 trillion. This figure significantly exceeds commonly reported numbers, raising concerns about the accuracy of current government accounting practices.

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Distinguished Speakers

The event will feature an impressive lineup of fiscal thought leaders and experts:

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• David WALKER, Former Comptroller General of the United States

• Dr. Lawrence KOTLIKOFF, Renowned economist and author

• Sheila WEINBERG, CPA and Founder of Truth in Accounting

• Andy MILLER, Citizen Accountants

• Joseph J. DIOGUARDI, Former U.S. Congressman & CPA

 

Key Objectives

The conference seeks to:

1. Expose the discrepancy between reported and actual U.S. financial obligations

2. Advocate for the implementation of accrual accounting in federal financial reporting

3. Urge the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to require FASAB to implement best practice accrual accounting.  

 

The conference organizers argue that the U.S. federal government's use of modified cash accounting, as opposed to accrual accounting, has led to a significant underreporting of financial obligations. They claim this practice, authorized by the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB), fails to account for long-term commitments such as Social Security and Medicare adequately.

 

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SPEAKERS’ BIOS: Meet Our Citizens-Heroes

 

Honorable David M. Walker

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Dave is a nationally and internationally recognized fiscal responsibility, government transformation/ accountability, and retirement security expert. He is a non-practicing CPA with over 40 years of executive level experience in the public, private and non-profit sectors, including heading three federal agencies (two ERISA agencies), two non-profits, and leading a global service line for Arthur Andersen LLP. His most recent full-time federal position was as the seventh Comptroller General of the United States and CEO of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) for almost 10 years. This was one of his three Presidential appointments by Presidents from both political parties, with unanimous Senate confirmation each time. Dave also served as one of two Public Trustees for Social Security and Medicare from 1990-1995, and as the first Chairman of the Independent Audit Advisory Committee for the United Nations. 

 

Most recently, Dave served as the Distinguished Visiting Professor and Crowe Chair at the U.S. Naval Academy where he taught the Economics of National Security. He currently serves on a number of government and non-profit Boards and Advisory Committees, including the Defense Business Board, as Chair of the Federal Fiscal Sustainability Foundation, and as a National Co-Founder of No Labels. 

 

Dave is also a periodic speaker, writer and media commentator. He has authored four books, the latest is entitled “America in 2040: Still a Superpower (A Pathway to Success)” published by AuthorHouse in September of 2020 and an update version was released in March 2024. His most recent previous book was entitled “Comeback America: Turning the Country Around and Restoring Fiscal Responsibility“ (2010), which achieved National Bestseller status. He has appeared in many major programs and documentaries, including being the primary subject in a 60 Minutes segment and the critically acclaimed documentary I.O.U.S.A. 

 

Dave has a Bachelors Degree in Accounting from Jacksonville University, an SMG Certificate from the JFK School at Harvard, a CAPSTONE Certificate from the National Defense University, and four Honorary Doctorate Degrees. He has received numerous professional and leadership awards, including the AICPA Gold Medal, and is in four Halls of Fame, including both the International Accounting and Auditing Halls of Fame.  

 

Dave is married to Mary Etheredge Walker.  They have two children and three grandchildren. 

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Laurence J. Kotlikoff

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Laurence J. Kotlikoff is a William Fairfield Warren Professor at Boston University, a Professor of Economics at Boston University, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Fellow of the Econometric Society, a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, President of Economic Security Planning, Inc., a company specializing in financial planning software, and a Research Fellow of the Goodman Institute.

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Kotlikoff is also a New York Times Best Selling author. The Economist Magazine ranked Kotlikoff one of the world’s 25 most influential economists. His website is Kotlikoff.net.

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Professor Kotlikoff received his B.A. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1973 and his Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University in 1977. From 1977 through 1983, Kotlikoff served on the faculties of economics of the University of California, Los Angeles and Yale University.

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In 1981-82, Professor Kotlikoff was a Senior Economist with the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. Professor Kotlikoff’s writings and research address personal finance, inequality, taxation, Social Security, climate change, investing, healthcare, deficits, and insurance.

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Professor Kotlikoff is author or co-author of 21 books, hundreds of professional journal articles, and a multitude of op eds and blogs. His larrykotlikoff.substack.com newsletter and podcast has tens of thousands of subscribers. (One can subscribe for free.) Kotlikoff’s latest book, co-authored with Terry Savage, is Social Security Horror Stories – Protect Yourself from the System and Avoid Clawbacks.

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The book, as well as Kotlikoff’s MaximizeMySocialSecurity.com software, was featured on 60 Minutes with Anderson Cooper. Kotlikoff’s 2022 book, Money Magic -- An Economists’ Secrets to More Money, Less Risk, and a Better Life won the business journalists’ association (SABEW) award for the best book in 2022 in investing and personal finance. You’re Hired contains Larry’s 2016 presidential campaign platform.

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Get What’s Yours – the Revised Secrets to Maxing Out Your Social Security, co-authored with Philip Moeller and Paul Solman, is a NY Times Best Seller.

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Kotlikoff’s other books include The Clash of Generations, co-authored with Scott Burns.

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The Economic Consequences of the Vickers Commission, Jimmy Stewart Is Dead, Spend ‘Til the End, co-authored with Scott Burns, Generational Policy, The Healthcare Fix, and The Coming Generational Storm, co-authored with Scott Burns. Kotlikoff’s columns have appeared in The NY Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Hill, The Financial Times, The Times of London, Forbes, CBNC, Bloomberg, PBS NewsHour, The Dallas News, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, the Seattle Times, Vox, Fortune, Seeking Alpha, Yahoo.com, VoxEU, Huffington Post, and other leading media outlets. Kotlikoff has served as a consultant to the Federal Reserve, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Harvard Institute for International Development, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Swedish Ministry of Finance, the Norwegian Ministry of Finance, the Bank of Italy, the Bank of Japan, the Bank of England, the Government of Russia, the Government of Ukraine, the Government of Bolivia, the Government of Bulgaria, the Treasury of New Zealand, the Finance Ministry of Malta, the Office of Management and Budget, the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Labor, the Joint Committee on Taxation, The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, The American Council of Life Insurance, Merrill Lynch, Fidelity Investments, AT&T, AON Corp., and other major U.S. corporations.

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Kotlikoff has provided expert testimony on numerous occasions to committees of Congress including the Senate Finance Committee, the Senate Budget Committee, the House Ways and Means Committee, and the Joint Economic Committee. Kotlikoff’s company markets economics-based financial planning software, including maxifiplanner.com, maximizemysocialssecurity.com, and analyzemydivorcesettlement.com. In 2016, Kotlikoff ran for President as a registered write-in candidate.

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His platform – You’re Hired – is available at Kotlikoff.net”. https://kotlikoff.net

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Sheila A. Weinberg

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Sheila A. Weinberg, CPA, is the founder and CEO of Truth in Accounting, whose mission is to compel governments to produce financial reports that are understandable, reliable, transparent and correct. Since 2002 Ms. Weinberg has led Truth in Accounting's research initiatives, which include "The Truth about Balanced Budgets: a Fifty State Study," the "Financial State of the States," and the "Financial State of the Union." Because of her expertise in governmental budgeting and accounting, Ms. Weinberg has testified before the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB), the Government Accounting Standards Board, and numerous state legislative hearings on matters of proper government accounting.

Ms. Weinberg earned her Bachelor of Accounting degree from the University of Denver, which she attended on an academic scholarship. She received her certified public accountant (CPA) credential in 1981. Ms. Weinberg was active in the Concord Coalition from its inception in 1992, and was honored in 1998 with their Outstanding Volunteer Award.

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Ms. Weinberg is a member of the Association of Government Accountants, the University of Denver's School of Accountancy Advisory Board, the Illinois CPA Society Governmental Executive Committee and the Consultative Advisory Group for the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board. She has served as an independent legislative adviser to members of Congress on federal budgeting and accounting issues. She was also a member of the Comeback America Initiative Advisory Council, the Academy of Government Accountability Advisory Council and two FASAB Task Forces. She chaired the Union League Club of Chicago's Public Affairs Committee. Her commentary on the federal budget, Social Security, Medicare and other national issues has appeared repeatedly in numerous publications, including USA Today, Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times. She has been a guest on local and national television and radio shows, and is often engaged to speak on federal and state budget and accounting issues.

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Andrew Miller

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Andrew Miller (Andy) retired from Ernst & Young LLP (EY) as a partner in the Firm’s National Tax Department June 30, 2016. When he retired Andy was EY’s America’s Area Industry Tax Services leader with a specific focus on the Energy sectors (Oil & Gas, Power & Utilities and Mining & Metals).

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Andy worked for Ernst & Young over 30 years serving a wide range of corporate clients. He focused on corporate tax services acting as a tax engagement partner for several large multinational energy and natural resource companies. He has extensive experience serving as a tax specialist in the natural resource industries on due diligence teams for EY’s merger and acquisition practice. Andy has also served as an instructor for Ernst & Young’s National Tax education program teaching such topics as Subchapter C, consolidated returns, and mergers and acquisitions.

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He is the primary author of the treatise, Taxation of Mining Operations, (Maxfield and Miller). In addition, Andy is a co-author of Restoring the Economic Interest Standard in the Taxation of Mineral Resources (Hortenstine, Huffman and Miller; SMU Rowling Center for Business Law & Leadership). He has served as an adjunct professor of accounting at the University of Missouri in Columbia. Andy is a 1978 graduate of the University of Missouri – Columbia receiving a BSBA in Accounting. He is a licensed certified public accountant (CPA) licensed in the state of Missouri, and he is a member of the Missouri Society of CPAs and the American Institute of CPAs.

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Joseph J. DioGuardi

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Joe DioGuardi served for twenty-two years, twelve of them as a partner, with the international accounting firm of Arthur Andersen & Co., one of the first public advocates of governmental fiscal responsibility, and the use of tried and tested accounting principles.  In January 1985, he brought his extensive professional and volunteer experience to Congress, when he became the first practicing Certified Public Accountant to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives.

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As a new Member of the House, DioGuardi took the lead in sounding the call for truth in federal budgeting, accounting, and reporting and in bringing financial accountability to Capitol Hill.  He was the original author of the Chief Financial Officer’s Act, signed by President George H.W. Bush in 1990, which mandated the assignment of a CFO to each major department and agency of the U.S. government.  

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Since leaving Congress in 1989, DioGuardi established Truth In Government, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, to continue his crusade for federal fiscal and accounting reforms.  He has been a frequent speaker on fiscal responsibility and public accountability.  In 1989, he was the keynote speaker at the Association for Government Accountants’ conference in New York.  In 1993, he chaired an AGA Task Force on Truth in Government Accounting and Budgeting.  In August 1994, as a keynote speaker at the annual conference of the American Accounting Association, DioGuardi persuaded professors of accounting to play an active role in reforming federal budgeting and financial management.

 

In May 1996, he returned to Washington as a keynote speaker on federal financial management reforms before the Institute of Management Accountants (formerly the National Association of Accountants).  In April 1997, the Texas Society of CPAs published an article by DioGuardi in Today’s CPA on the real magnitude of the national debt.  In March 2009, DioGuardi testified before the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB) on the need to fully account for Social Security and Medicare in the annual financial statements of the US government.

 

In July 2014, DioGuardi was a keynote speaker at the annual meeting of the Association of Government Accountants on why we need accrual accounting in Washington.  And in October 2014, he addressed the annual convention of the Florida Institute of CPAs in conjunction with the University of Florida in Gainesville.  DioGuardi is the author of Unaccountable Congress:  It Doesn’t Add Up, a book published nationally by Regnery Gateway in 1992 and reissued with an updated introduction in 2010.  

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He has written numerous articles on federal accounting and budget reforms over a thirty-year period of public service in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors of America.  His most recent articles have appeared in the Huffington Post, The Hill, Roll Call, and the Journal of Government Financial Management.  In November 2020, at the request of the New York State Society of CPAs, DioGuardi published in the 90th anniversary edition of the CPA Journal a seminal article on accrual accounting for the US national debt. 

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DioGuardi is the recipient of numerous awards and honors.  For achievement as a professional accountant, he was given the Outstanding CPA in Government Award by the New York State Society of CPAs in 1986, and in 1992, he received the Association of Government Accountants’ Annual Achievement Award.

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In addition to his work as a professional accountant, DioGuardi is the founding president of the Albanian American Civic League, which has worked for the past 30 years with Members of the House and Senate Committees on Foreign Affairs to bring independence to Kosova (in 2008) and lasting peace and stability to the Western Balkans.  During his first term in Congress, DioGuardi also became the standard bearer for gaining Medals of Honor for African American war heroes in World Wars I and II who were denied recognition because of racial segregation.  With the help of his friend and colleague Senator John McCain (who served on the Senate Committee on Armed Services), DioGuardi started what would turn into a 35-year effort to rectify the history of racial injustice in the military.  His efforts have resulted thus far in the posthumous award of Medals of Honor for two Black American war heroes—one in 1991 by President George H.W. Bush and the other in 2015 by President Barack Obama.

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Born in the Bronx, New York, on September 20, 1940, DioGuardi moved to Westchester County with his immigrant parents in 1957.  He is a 1958 graduate of Fordham Preparatory School, and in 1962 he graduated with honors from Fordham University.

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DioGuardi lives in Ossining, New York, with his wife, Shirley Cloyes, a writer, human rights activist, and former book publisher.

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DioGuardi’s most recent publications on the issue of national debt can be found on the following CPA Journal page: https://www.cpajournal.com/author/joseph-dioguardi/ 
 

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REGISTER TO ATTEND​​​

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To register to attend the conference, please use the following link: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_vvPjYZTOT8qUu-QL90Yiww

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CONFERENCE CO-CHAIRS

 

Faton Tony Bislimi, PhD

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Tony is a Harvard-educated economist and international development expert. He is a Board Member of Truth In Government, NY, and has been working closely with former Congressman Joe DioGuardi for the past two decades.

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Joe Carvin   

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Joe started his professional career on Wall Street where he worked with Morgan Grenfell, Deutsch Bank and Manufacturers Hanover Trust before becoming one of the three co-founders of an Equity Special Situations hedge fund called Altima Partners.   Altima Partners invested primarily in emerging markets finance across the globe.

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After having served in the elected position of Town Supervisor of the Town of Rye, where Joe won the battle to reduce ongoing costs by 25% while providing a better level of service but lost the battle to eliminate his level of government, Joe unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2012.

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It was during this campaign he found out that the US Federal Government does not hire an independent financial auditor, has not been able to issue a clean opinion for decades, and uses modified cash accounting hiding as much as $100 trillion in unfunded liabilities.

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Following the campaign former Congressman Joe DioGuardi explained to him just how far the US Congress is willing to go to hide the true level of financial obligations from the US public with the passage of the 1989 CFO Act and the creation of FASAB.  Those efforts are nothing short of scandalous as recounted here:  From Unaccountable to Unconscionable

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Bill O’Reilly

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Bill O’Reilly is a leading U.S. political communications writer who has served as a strategist and spokesman for candidates, causes, and private corporations for more than 30 years. His observations regularly appear on television, radio, and in national and international print media. O'Reilly served as a weekly political columnist for Newsday from 2012 to 2023.

 

He is a former board member of the American Association of Political Consultants and a current board member at The Buckley Institute at Yale, the One Nation Movement, and at the Lion Leadership Fund.

Bill has been fighting the unconscionable inter-generational transfer of resources from young to old.

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Judi Willard

 

Judi Willard has a wide range of communications skills, from a public speaking background and digital work to written communications. Her bachelor's degree is in Communications with a concentration in Radio/Television. She was a disc jockey and the producer of a cable television program. She worked as a Development Director for a Catholic Missionary school and development and communications for both the Policy Circle and Illinois Policy Institute. Fun fact: She has performed stand-up comedy with her own written material.

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For more information, please feel free to contact Truth In Government at jjd@truthingovernment.org