Stealing You Blind: How Government Fat Cats Are Getting Rich Off of You

by Iain Murray

Overview

Since the Obama administration has taken office, government bureaucracy, government regulation and government spending have exploded. In his new book, Stealing You Blind, author Iain Murray reveals where all that money is going....and just how much of that money goes into the pockets of incompetent government workers, lazy union bosses, inept state educators, and bureaucratic officials. "The administration is swindling us", says Murray. "They promise to use tax payer dollars to give us better healthcare or a stronger financial system, but then use that money to line coffers, create more bureaucratic agencies, and fatten their wallets." Shocking and controversial, Stealing You Blind reveals how Obama and the Left are intent on on feeding government fat cats—and what you can do about it.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781596982093
Publisher:	Skyhorse Publishing
Publication date:	07/11/2011
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	390 KB

About the Author

Iain Murray is Vice President for Strategy and senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a Washington, DC-based think tank that works to promote free markets and limited government. Murray also directs the Center for Economic Freedom at CEI. For the past fifteen years at CEI, Iain has written and lectured extensively on free markets and the environment, labor policy, finance, the EU, and trade. He tweets at @ismurray and is a Contributing Editor at Instapundit.com. Before coming to CEI, Iain was Director of Research at the Statistical Assessment Service. A
former civil servant in the United Kingdom, where he helped to privatize the railroad industry, Iain immigrated to the U.S. in 1997 and remains a British citizen. He holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of London and a Master of Arts from the University of Oxford. He is married with two children and lives in Northern Virginia. Iain is a long-suffering fan of the Washington Redskins, Sunderland AFC, and the England cricket team. He likes to brew his own beer and play board and table-top games with friends.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Part 1 This Is Al Gore's House. What Does Yours Look Like?

Chapter 1 Lifestyles of the Rich and Powerful 1

Chapter 2 Government 101 11

Part 2 Stand and Deliver!

Chapter 3 The Tax Army 29

Chapter 4 Red Tape Bondage Games 43

Chapter 5 It's for the Children! 65

Part 3 Robber Barons in Action

Chapter 6 Private Sector Jargon, Public Sector Performance 79

Chapter 7 Union Men 99

Part 4 Your Friendly Local Robber Barons

Chapter 8 Municipal Madness 127

Chapter 9 The Education Bubble 149

Conclusion: A Program for Public Sector Reform 173

Acknowledgments 189

Notes 191

Index 205

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Stealing You Blind




“Where do all your hard-earned tax dollars go? You don’t know the half of it! . . . This must read manual takes you on a maddening tour that starts at Al Gore’s mansion, winds through the ever-expanding empire of Nanny State busybodies in Washington, and dives into bloated municipal payrolls from the Big Apple to Bell, California. Murray outlines imperative reforms to rein in these new robber barons. If you believe public servants should serve the public and not themselves, get this book.”

—Michelle Malkin, Fox News Contributor and author of Culture of Corruption



“A powerful government, the liberal myth goes, places a check on special interests and provides a counterbalance to the power of the wealthy. In truth, government growth instead creates a new class of Robber Barons—handsomely paid ‘public servants’ who soon monetize that service to become obscenely paid revolving-door lobbyists and ‘consultants.’ Recovered bureaucrat Iain Murray paints the unseemly picture of ‘our new leisure class’ in vivid—and often rage-inducing—detail.”

—Tim Carney, author of Obamanomics and Senior Political Columnist, The Washington Examiner



“Iain Murray eviscerates what he calls the new robber barons, the great empire-builders of the public sector. It is a story of greed, arrogance, and power that would make even a domineering nineteenth-century industrialist blush. This isn’t just a smart and entertaining take-down, but a call to action.”

—Rich Lowry, editor of National Review

From the Publisher