Government Racket, The

by Martin L. Gross

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cornucopia of government waste, 2008-09-01
THE GOVERNMENT RACKET (1992)
by Martin L. Gross

The Government Racket is a great introduction to wasteful government spending practices.

The chapters are organized into chapters related to either a part of the government (Dept of Agriculture, Congress, pentagon, Vice President, etc), a government program (medicare, national archives, social security) or a beneficiary of wasteful spending (chauffeurs, consultants, universities). An obvious response would be "don't we need to spend money on these things in order for them to exist? In most cases Gross does not argue that we need to eliminate these parts of spending, only cut out the unnecessary fat. For example, the Vice President's housekeeper earns $50,000 (pg.236). Gross attempts to end many of the chapters with a solution to cut spending.

Many of these expenditures are so enormous that this book may come across as cartoonish or satirical. Why did $249,000 of a research grant to Stanford go to paying for a parking lot (pg.197)? What happened to the $11 billion surplus in gasoline taxes that was appropriated by the Treasury Department (pg. 102)? Why is the true amount of the segregated social security trust fund a mystery in spite of higher social security taxes (pg. 208)? These are some of the questions Gross asks. More than anything else, the book is a call for increased transparency and accountability in government, especially with regards to the budget. There is an entire chapter on Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) who is famous for securing federal spending for his state in the form of "pork". One could also devote an entire chapter to Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK), whom the Citizens Against Government Waste names as having won more pork per capita than any other senator eight of the past nine years!

This is a quick and easy read and should appeal to anybody who wants to know the extent of the bloated budget. This book has been updated at least two times, first as a "2000 edition" and then "2000 and Beyond".

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