Shakedown : the continuing conspiracy against the American taxpayer / Steven Malanga
- Author
- Malanga, Steven
- Published
- Chicago : Ivan R. Dee, 2010.
- Physical Description
- 180 pages ; 23 cm
- Contents
- The conspiracy against taxpayers -- The bill is coming due -- California's road to serfdom -- The mob that whacked Jersey -- We don't need another war on poverty -- America's worst urban program -- The movement to undermine welfare reforms -- The religious left, reborn -- The advocates and Washington's housing disorders -- A culture of entitlement everywhere.
- Summary
- ""Here's a book that truly deserves those overused adjectives t̀imely' and ìmportant.' It enables us to grasp and analyze the root causes of the catastrophic financial collapse of so many state and local governments as well as the seemingly sudden explosion of federal spending and the unprecedented peace-time penetration of federal power into our now beleaguered free-enterprise economy. The economic crisis provided the pretext for Uncle Sam's neo-socialist power grab and laid bare the appalling weakness of much of our local government finance."---Steve Forbes, from the foreword" ""The mainstream media is not interested in exposing the powerful machinations of public sector unions and social service advocacy groups and their increasingly strong grip on politics. Why? For that you have to turn to writers like Steven Malanga and books like Shakedown."---Andrew Breitbart" ""While the federal fiscal mess has had lots of attention, Americans face even more danger from runaway spending and improvident pension promises by state and local governments. Steven Malanga provides the grisly details in Shakedown. He shows how public-sector unions and government-financed c̀ommunity organizers' are wreaking ruin on our private-sector economy."---Michael Barone, senior political analyst, Washington Examiner" "As their infatuation with President Obama fades, millions of Americans anxiously ask: Is this the change we were waiting for? The current administration represents change, for sure, Steven Malanga argues-a momentous transformation of the fundamental structure of American politics. A self-interested coalition of public-sector unions and government-financed community activists (like the young Barack Obama) has become our era's characteristic political machine." "In Shakedown, Malanga shows how this machine's single-minded goal is always bigger government and more public spending. The bill, he says, is now coming due for the relentless rise of this new political powerhouse. He chronicles how public-sector unions and the corrupt political hacks beholden to them have all but bankrupted once-rich states like California and New Jersey. He details the campaigns to undermine the successful and popular 1990s welfare reform and to revitalize the failed, wasteful War on Poverty programs that funnel taxpayer money to the advocacy groups that are integral cogs in the new political machine. And he provides a comprehensive summary of how these same advocacy groups spent decades helping undermine mortgage standards in the name of helping the poor-in the process enriching themselves and enabling the housing meltdown. As Americans anxiously ponder the future direction of their government and their economy, Shakedown explores the questions of who got us in this mess and why we need change-constructive change-more than ever."--BOOK JACKET.
- Subject(s)
- ISBN
- 9781566638753 (cloth : alk. paper)
1566638755 (cloth : alk. paper) - Bibliography Note
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
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