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Red Ink: Inside The High-Stakes Politics Of The Federal Budget (2012)

by David Wessel(Favorite Author)

3.78 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0770436145 (ISBN13: 9780770436148)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Crown Business

review 1: Christina Romer said it best on the back of this book - "I wish every voter would read this book. It spells out in a clear, nonpartisan way the realities of the deficit...The message is painful, but the book is not." Somewhere in the past, maybe my generation or my parents, we as a country lost our sense of community. We no longer care about our neighbors. We no longer volunteer to help others without an ulterior motive (boost our resumes, get a scholarship or board position, look better at the PTO events...) I think this is what is wrong with the world. I think every serious issue we, as a country, are currently facing can be tied to the fact that we are no longer a community. There are a lot of statistics in this book, and I think the most sobering is that there i... mores $90,000 of federal debt for every household in America. It was only $54,000 prior to the Great Recession. Whether we want to admit it or not, we are responsible for that. We need to get our priorities in line, make some hard decisions, and get on with it. I don't agree with much of the Dave Ramsey philosophy, but I think his sentiment applies here. Live like no one else today, in order to live like no one else tomorrow. Let's make America #1 again, and it's going to take a whole team - the whole community - in order to do it. If it means I get $1,000 less back in my tax refund, then I'm doing my part.
review 2: Really interesting take on the federal budget and the deficit. Wessel makes a pretty compelling case for lowering spending, increasing taxes, and eliminating tax loopholes - all of which he presents as necessary if we want to continue our current defense spending and the "entitlement" programs we've come to expect. This was a quick read, and I'm sure people who are well-versed in politics and/or economics would find reasons to disagree with him, but for a beginner like me, it was a perfect introduction to the federal budget game. less

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