Martin L. Gross (1925–2013)

The Federal Government is the worst example of how to run a business (and make money). I got this book thinking I would be enlightened by all the Government programs that were ridiculous or wasteful. It was all this and so much more. It does point out a lot of silly programs that waste money, but in the grand scheme of the budget it's a bit more than a drop in the bucket.

The author is truely bi-partisan. He points out how there really isn't a surplus, how the government can make much more money on it's own and thus enable taxes to be lower. Speaking of taxes, he favors the National Sales Tax and justifies why this is the only fair and practical way to go. His solution to lowering the welfare budget is to give each person who, by our laws is considered poor (7.7 million), enough money to be above the poverty line. In one swoop, we will have no more poor people and it will cost less than the yearly welfare budget.

The big waste of money comes from the gross mis-management of programs and agencies. The author points out numerous cases of
- multiple programs covering the same subject spread out over several agencies.
- Horrible management of programs that lose the government millions (and billions) of dollars.
- Outdated programs that were useful 50 years ago, but serve no purpose today, other than to waste tax money.
- Massive number of perks allocated to Congress that include overstaffing and other spending luxuries.
With every instance of waste or mis-management the author gives his solution to the problem, complete with the amount of money that would be saved.

The second part of the book updates people on the waste he brought up in his first book The Government Racket: Washington Waste From A to Z, which was written in 1993. Some perks and programs were changed or removed. Others were left alone to continue wasting tax dollars.

The third part of the book discusses how he would restructure the Federal Government. This mostly centers around the Cabinet and the consolidation and/or removal of agencies and programs.

I would rank this book high on my list of books for anyone wanting to know what is really wrong with our Federal Government, and why the spending has gone through the roof.

After reading this book, you will be so disgusted with politicians (Democrats and Republicans) that you'll want to take a firehose and wash away all the Washington sludge.… (més)

This book was written in 1993 and deals with various aspects of Washington that are hindering the good old U S of A. Most of the topics he touches on center around taxes, lobbyists, useless agencies, budgets, and bureaucracies.

All in all it was an interesting book even though his writing style makes him sound a tad angry. Unfortunately, I read Government Racket 2000 before I read this one. That book says a lot of what he said here. In fact, I'd swear that text was directly copied into the GR2000 book. I wish this book was something a bit different from the GR2000.

If I had to recommend a book, read The Government Racket 2000. It's more modern and he gets his point across without the anger.… (més)