Rome Wasn't Burnt in a Day: The Real Deal on How Politicians, Bureaucrats, and Other Washington Barbarians Are Bankrupting America

I really enjoyed this book. As a 20 year old who has aspirations to run for Senate or House of Reps... this book gives me a really good idea of what to expect. Congressman Joe isn't afraid to expose the dirty laundry of not only the Democrats but his fellow Republicans. According to Joe, we spend way too much. It's ridiculous where our tax dollars are going to. Congressman Joe did a really good job on this book, and I am a huge watcher of his show whenever I can watch it.

As the cover states, this is, "The Real Deal on How Politicians, Bureaucrats, and Other Washington Barbarians Are Bankrupting America. "For readers seeking partisan insults instead of political insights, I can assure you that your local bookstore will provide scores of titles guaranteed to reinforce any preexisting prejudices one might harbor against a wide array of political enemies. But this is not such a book. The goal here is to show you how Washington truly functions by taking you behind the closed doors of Congress, into Oval Office meetings, onto Air Force One, and deep inside the corridors of power to which few Americans are granted access," (pg. 6). So begins Joe Scarborough's new book "Rome Wasn't Burnt in a Day". Scarborough's book deals simultaneously with three subjects. The first is a memoir of his time as a Congressman from Pensacola, Fl circa 1994 - 2001. The second theme is a tell-all about the scandalous waste and corruption that steers that the federal government and makes short work of those like him or John McCain whom would seek to reform the government. The third theme offers suggestions on how to heal the sickness within Washington DC, presumably without having your life and/or livelihood snuffed out like a mafia snitch. "Rome etc." is a pretty concise book that gets right to the point about government waste and spending. One of the major topics covered is a subject near and dear to my heart, the absolutely absurd amount of money spent on farm subsidies. Anyone that follows this should know that farm subsidies are one of the biggest bones of the contention against the US in terms of the global free market economy. We pay farmers unseemly amounts of tax dollars not to grow crops in order to inflate prices and create demand. Then on top of that, we don't buy cheap (FDA approved) food from "third world" countries, which would prime the pump of international economies. Essentially the message we are sending the world is, "Open up your markets to us, but for your market's, go scratch!" While Scarborough doesn't go into nearly this much detail about the international offense of the US farm subsidies, he does mention the domestic waste and corruption it portends. So much so that while I was reading about it, I nearly cheered that someone other than Bill Maher and I have noticed the damage farm subsidies or welfare if you will have caused. A great deal of the book also deals with the Newt Gingrich saga and the Contract With America. I wasn't following politics at the time so this was new to me. Scarborough also deals with Bill Clinton, the budget battles and the government shutdown. There's also a great deal of time spent on Gingrich's removal as Speaker of the House due to his duplicity on said Contract With America and those whom supported him. Along the way he speaks of how the establishment is run on the iron law of party loyalty. He regales tails of how and some other bright eyed freshmen Congressmen o

Joe Scarborough does an excellent job of confirming what we already know: our current moneyed political system is irreversibly corrupt. In any other country we'd call it bribery and payola. In America the politicians instead label it freedom of speech. That works better for them. We have a corrupt duopoly that stacks the deck against anybody and everybody who gets in the way: third-party candidates, taxpayers, voters, even the right wing religious faction who supported the GOP on the basis of its "values." Values? Even as a lifelong Republican I have never been able to grasp why we hide our heads in the sand as they pick our pockets and those of our kids and grandkids. The government giveaways are criminal, yet no accountability is demanded. It is too bad that Joe and his maverick "Class of `94" couldn't or didn't stay long enough to clean it up, but then again, when the sewage gets too deep it is better to do a complete excavation. And that appears to be the only thing that will fix congress; a complete turnover of US representatives and senators. That over 90% of them instead got reelected in 2004 demonstrates that we voters are simply disconnected. Joe provides some excellent recommendations on the fixes, but only a new congress will get them passed. This is a must read, but then some activism on the part of the reader is in order.

This is an excellent expose` of the inner workings of our federal government written by one who had six years to observe first-hand. As many of us have long known or suspected, the author confirms that there is not a dimes worth of difference between the Democrats and Republicans in many ways. He maintains that there is a fraternity consisting of both Democratic and Republican leaders and their staffs, which runs the government regardless of which party is in power. He is especially concerned with the runaway expenditures as votes are traded so that each representative or senator obtains funding for his own pet projects, many of them in support of his or her own constituency. As a result the federal budget is not under control and thus is rarely balanced. He highlights the fact that there is built in control over any individual's ability to initiate reform. As he says to reform you have to get on the government reform committee, and to get on a committee of your choice, you have to be a "team" player for those in control. The author was a member of the so-called "class of 94." The Republicans gained control of the House of Representatives that year running on their "contract with America" calling for some big changes. In actuality, Joe Scarborough found that after much effort by many of these committed freshmen congressmen, it was to be business as usual in Washington D.C. Scarborough has some good words for Newt Gingrich, the Speaker of the House, but he also blames Gingrich for his failure to stand up to President Clinton. He conveys that the failure of Gingrich to outlast Clinton in the 1996 budget impasse, which resulted in a shutdown of the government, was the death of the Republican revolution brought on by the class of 94 and the contract with America, and became the initial step in the spending spree which continues today even under President Bush. Even though President Bush has evidently made little effort to control spending, the author still believes that he is the best choice for President at this time.

As a first time voter in 1994, I registered as a Republican. I voted pretty much a straight Republican ticket because they were the party for smaller government and getting the bureaucrats out of our lives. Or so I thought. Over the next six years, they didn't reduce the goverment in scope or power, but actually increased it. Even more so than Bill Clinton. The Republicans may be for "smaller" government in some areas, but not others. The Democrats are the same way. Just they had been doing it much longer. This book justs confirms what I realized four years ago. Nowadays, I am involved with the Libertarian Party, the true fiscal conservatives and working on a presidential campaign.