Customer Reviews

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

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It isn't often that one runs into a former member of Congress willing to criticize his own political party and most of its current office holders, including a sitting President of the United States. But that's just what Joe Scarborough does in this book.

He laments that Republicans are not the party of Reagan anymore. Both major parties demand allegiance to their platforms before their principles. Government grows at the expense of citizen's wallets and personal freedoms. These and other pithy statements fill this book.

He explains how, after Republicans took control of Congress in 1994, party leaders eventually "began buying votes and building a patronage system by spending other people's money - specifically yours and mine." Sending pork home was one of the best ways to insure reelection.

Scarborough is especially shocked and saddened that "while New York and Washington were still burning, congressmen and senators added pork projects for their home districts onto an emergency spending bill aimed at September 11th relief needs."

While he is critical of Democrats and Republicans, he reminds the reader that most Democrats never promised to cut spending and taxes. Most Republicans did, making their sell-out even more offensive.

Beside the massive spending spree, the book discusses such moral efforts as defense of marriage and character education in schools. Adding federally mandated student testing, Scarborough asks the "conservative moralists" if they "really believe Republicans will run the White House forever? Or do they simply plan to resume their assaults on the socialization of education when Democrats retake the White House?"

The book was obviously written and edited quickly to come out before the November elections. That aside, anyone interested in a frank inside-baseball view of what really goes on in Washington should read this book. It is a somber reminder that Lord Acton was right, power really does corrupt.

Joe Scarborough is about the only honorable conservative pundit on TV or radio these, in my opinion. People from all ideologies can't help but respect his fairness and honesty in promoting the common good even if his beliefs on ideology conflict with some. He never loses sight of common sense and spares no one...not even his own party when it comes to corruption. His book is no exception.

As a regular viewer of his show, I looked forward to reading the gory details of the circus in Washington. Scarborough shows early and often what his deepest, most passionate hatred is about Washington: wastful, irresponsible pork barrel spending. The examples of wastful spending in Congress is apalling. The bribes, payoffs and hypocracy and corruption is enraging. His story of how he got into Congress is inspiring for anyone thinking of running for a House Seat. His accounts of what Washington is like just screams reform. And his suggestions are lucid and practical and should go into practice.

The detailed blame he puts on his own party for the astronomical and dangerous deficits accumulated over the past 4 years of GOP-controlled Washington is shocking. The two-faced, self serving image he paints on most people in Washington would make almost anyone vote their congressman and senator OUT of office.

Great book for reform advocates and honest people. We are not alone. Joe is on OUR side.

About the only drawback in my opinion is the partisanship tainted throughout the book. Although he's mad at his party leaders, he still aplogizes for his party by saying where it should be. Angry, honest Democrats and Liberals could say the same thing. His dismissal of Dem's as inherently bad and critique of Repub's as acting like Dem's is biased. Fiscal responsibility is not a Rebublican trait as he can't help but point out. Bottomline is that when given control of the federal checkbook for the first time in 40 years, the Republicans have proven no better than Democrats.

He puts equal blame on Bush because he's done nothing to stop the spending spree. "The buck" still stops at the White House, Joe points out. In fact, he grudgingly points out that Clinton's numbers and record on spending and expansion of government are better than Bush's. This means a lot coming from a self-proclaimed Clinton-hater.

The unpartisan message however is not lost: Once in Congress, most politicians act dishonorably and dishonestly. Lobbyists, another evil that he points out, have more pull in affecting laws than we do. This needs to change. And this horrid spending and blatant corruption will not end until WE change it by holding our congressmen and senators accountable with real checks and control by the people. Good job, Joe.

Joe Scarborough has written an extremely good book about the operation of our government in quite a candid way. Given his own background as a Congressman during the Gingrich era, and his political affiliations, one cannot complete this book and not call Scarborough a true patriot. He kept his word and served in the House with integrity. A rare breed these days, unfortunately, and he makes no secret of his disapproval for the way Washington is currently operating.

He makes it quite clear that the Republican Party is no longer standing by its own ideological beliefs, but rather is spending astronomical amounts of money to fund programs which are not truly benefitting the American public. Too much pork-barreling is happening, as well as too much backscratching. Scarborough was one man who tried to make a difference, but the numbers clearly overpowered him. The lobbyists, the powerhouses on the Hill, and all those affiliated with special interest groups are the ones really running America.

We need more Joe Scarboroughs in Congress. The more people we can get, who recognize and live up to their duties as legislators, then perhaps the better a chance we stand in turning our country around for the better.

It's actually quite scary, to not really know what back door deals are being brokered in the congresspeople's self-interest of being re-elected. I think all of our legislators need to read this book, and as a supplement, watch "Mr. Smith goes to Washington" as a refresher for being a honest and admirable public servant.

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.

Say it ain't so, Joe. Could it be that our political system is constructed with a built in propensity to waste our hard earned dollars? That Capitol Hill is rife with venal, ruthless opportunists whose care and feeding of the special interest beasts ensures that most worthy citizens remain locked out of the Federal castle like so many vassals in servitude? That it doesn't matter which party prevails, the spending party never stops?

Sadly, yes to all three, according to Joe Scarborough in his recent Washington expose "Rome Wasn't Burned in a Day". As one of the maverick Republicans who stormed Congress in 1994 with an aggressive agenda or welfare reform, tax and spending cuts, and general accountability, he's in a position to know. It's tough in there, he tells his dismayed readership, sprinkling the narrative of his experience with anecdotes about Congressional waste and corruption as amusing as they are alarming.

Here are some of the specifics: %500K for swine waste management, $175K to study desert plants, 5M for "at risk" fisherman. And there are more. And these, moreover, emanating from that same Republican Congress who rode in ten years ago to save the day from such folly. Power corrupts, Scarborough shows us, as we take a trip with him through the looking glass during his tenure in Congress. Through internecine squabbles, floor battles, and nasty personal piques, we see how the Republican liberators have emerged as the new tyrants, complete with uassailable House seats and enabled by a pliant Republican president.

Ah, the pity of it. Unfortunately, none of it is really news, and the fate of the Republican mavericks could have been foretold from the outset. They did accomplish some real change before they flared out, but Scarborough lingers mostly on their failures, all the time minimizing his own role in their downfall. And he did play one.

He presents himself as the prototypical Mr. Smith, tough and unflappable in defending the basic limited government principles he believes in. But Mr. Scarborough must be savvy enough to know that politics is a war game, that he played the game in a certain way, won a few battles, and lost his right flank. This is life. But things will go on without him. The war for basic libertarian priniciples did not end with the goverment shutdown in 1995 and the mutiny against Newt Gingrich.

The book has a lot of strengths--its down home writing style, simple presentation of the complex nuances of the political game, and Joe Scarborough's own compelling story of triumph and disillusionment. The problem is that Scarborough seems more interested in blaming everyone for the state of the system now rather than looking forward to new possibilities. Terms limits, campaign finance reform, more disclosure--his remedial suggestions seem like an afterthought, old and moldy reform concepts that either haven't been tried or haven't worked. Scarborough insists, over and over, that he quit Congress in order to be a better father. Perhpas. But it seems likely that he, like any number of clever operators in Congress, knew how to cut and run when the running was good.

If you are either a Reagan Democrat or a Reagan Republican, Joe Scarborough has bad news for you. Ten years after the Republican take over of the House of Representatives the former champions of limited government are now the primary dispensers of government cash. Far from limiting the growth of government, the ruling Republicans are merely doling out the cash in a different pattern than did the Democrats. The game has not changed in the least.

This is the tale told in "Rome Wasn't Burnt In A Day." There are impressive facts and figures to back up Joe's thesis. According to Scarborough, the size and scope of government has not retreated in the ten years since the heady days of 1994 when he was elected to Congress. Though the GOP has had control of the House ever since, control of the Senate for most of that time, and control of the White House for the past four years, government outlays just keep growing. Ronald Reagan, by contrast, never had a mandate over the House and rarely a friendly majority in the Senate, yet he managed to at least restrain the beast somewhat.

In order to tell the story, Scarborough recounts the early days of the Class of 1994. There were quite a few young Turks that entered Congress at that time, and at 31, Scarborough was not the least bit out of place. The new breed really thought that scaling back the scope of the federal government would be easy since they were the elected representatives of the people, they had a majority, and it was so obviously the right thing to do.

It just didn't work out that way, however. As Joe recounts, the new Republican congressional masters merely redirected the flow of federal dollars from Democrat districts to Republican districts. If a new guy raised a stink about it, he was told in no uncertain terms that party loyalty trumped all, and if the line weren't towed and the votes cast as directed, the GOP leadership would target the rebel for election defeat.

The best parts of the book describe meetings that Scarborough was present for where senior Republicans proceeded to browbeat rooms full of young congressmen on the need for party loyalty. There was a party line to tow, and the young revolutionaries did not author it. The old guys called the tune, and they had but one priority, which was keeping the cash flow in place.

Scarborough quotes Reagan's description of this process: "Tax, spend, and elect."

A sad book, but a real eye opener.

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.

The author warns that the growing Federal debt is creating long term threats to the national economy. He warns conservatives in Congress to stop protecting their own spending projects which only contribute towards the growing debt. There has been an increase in the use of rhetoric in Congress. The result is an increase in bitterness between opposing political parties in Congress resulting in only a few attempting to find solutions.

The Federal budget balanced in 1998 due to a number of factors, according to Scarborough. The 1993 tax increase brought in more revenues, the 1995 decreased spending reduced outflows, and the IRS aggressively collected trillion of more money. Thus, fraudulent business owners, especially in Internet and telecommunications businesses, paid their due taxes which helped balance the budget.

The Gingrich Revolution, the author states, ended when the Republican majority in Congress compromised and accepted President Clinton's policies. Many Republican members of Congress fought for their budgetary pork spending programs. Instead of reforming Congress, Republicans began using political power to advance themselves rather than their reform agenda. Voters thus didn't see much difference between the two political parties.

Scarborough is upset at how political and the media works. He recalls how he gave a reporter a story. After the reporter died, a political enemy spread a rumor the reporter got the story from a gay affair. Scarborough called to correct the rumor.

A problem that members of Congress face is their need for large amounts of funds for their reelection campaigns. It takes party leaders to raise the large amounts. The leaders then give these funds in return for loyalty to the leaders' causes.

Scarborough argues that members of Congress and Congressional staffers should be banned from lobbying Congress for five years after leaving Congress. He also proposes that campaign contributions should be immediately disclosed.

Scarborough calls for pay as you go spending and for balanced budgets. He would place ½ of 1% of tax revenues aside for emergencies.

This book is Joe Scarborough's memoirs from his participation as one of 73 members of the "class of 1994" or the "Republican Revolution" that went to Washington to change it for the better. The mission was only partially fulfilled and after reading this book you will understand why.

In addition to being an entertaining read there is some educational information to be found in "Rome Wasn't Burnt in a Day."
The seven criteria used by Citizens Against Government Waste in their definition of pork barrel spending is one example.

The backstabbing and whining behind closed doors by members of both parties is almost comical untill you realize that was going on with elected officials that should be serving their constitutuents.

Another point is that when it comes to "larding up" bills a lot of folks in Washington have no dignity when it comes to a potential oppurtunity.

Mr Scarborough makes an interesting point in support of term limits. Those Congresspersons that followed through on their self-imposed term limits were usually more likely to cut spending.

The author confirms what many political writers cite as a major problem in Washington, the special interests that buy votes, write bills, and benefit when the taxpayer gets stuck with the bill.

Newt Gingich's fall was used as an example of what happens when the mob mentality overtakes a person's popularity. He also casts a little light on the political maneuverings and back-door deals surrounding Gingrich's demise.

Joe Scarborough has written an "easy read" that is both entertaining and enlightening on how what happens in Washington can often derail the best intentions of dedicated public servants like some of the "class on '94".

Mr. Scarborough was elected to Congress in the 1994 election that saw the Republicans take control of both houses for the first time in many years. Speaker Newt Gingrich and the Republicans who had signed a "Contract with America" were riding high, but their revolution wouldn't last long. It's one thing to promise term limits, it's another to observe them when your time to step down arrives.

Financial discipline is a worthy goal, but enforcing it is unpopular because government spending is a source of power and most of our political leaders and their staffs would rather spend more than less. Consider some of the questionable programs that get funded, such as these items from the 1998 Highway Bill: $3 million spent on a film extolling the virtues of highways; $20 million directed at building roads overseas; $1.5 million to study the parking habits of truckers at their favorite truck stops; $500,000 to study sidewalks at the Kennedy Center; $2.75 million to build a smoother access road to a baseball park in Dayton, Ohio.

2005 Update: There were 6,371 earmarked amendments in the Federal highway bill enacted in 2005. One infamous example was a $230 million bridge to the Ketchikan, Alaska airport (on an island) that became known as "the bridge to nowhere." This particular earmark was ultimately eliminated, but only on the understanding that the State of Alaska could retain the funds for use as it saw fit.

The author uses his own experiences to relate how "the party of Reagan" morphed within a few years into a party bent on launching new spending programs at the same time that it was cutting taxes.

To "change the way Washington works," Scarborough advocates process-related changes such as a Congressional pay freeze until the federal budget is balanced and statutory term limits (6 years) for members of the House of Representatives. His suggestions might not prove a panacea, but they are certainly worth considering.