Writing this review during the 2008 Presidential campaign and amidst the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, I find the book, "Where Does the Money Go?" informative, provocative and very, very timely. If either of the Presidential candidates had read the book before the final debate, I think either would have scored meaning points with the viewers. Instead, when asked to comment on the federal debt, neither seemed to want to address it. Or, maybe neither really had the knowledge conveyed in this comprehensive, easy-to-read, very worthwhile book.
The first thing that I like about the book is that it clearly invites the reader in as if the reader has nothing to worry about, as if there are no "dumb" questions. At no time did I ever feel that the authors were talking down to me or expecting me to have a level of knowledge beyond the average reader. So, in this sense, the book appears to be meant to be a primer, but it goes well beyond that. It clearly goes on to give the reader a high level of insight into how the federal budget works and what the ramifications are to reducing the debt amassed.
Suggestions are made and alternatives are presented. But, like the climate-change or energy-independence issues, the book does not tell us that there is any one easy answer. In fact, there may not be ANY easy answers. It will be HARD to reduce the federal debt. HARD!
No one should come away from the solution without sacrifices. To make it work, we simply need to make dramatic changes in our expectations of what we have coming from our government. We have maxed out on our credit cards, and now the "rent" is due. Not only do we have to pay our future dues - including those connected with entitlements to our seniors - we have to pay off our credit cards AT THE SAME TIME!
Some of the major points made by the book:
* The federal government, with 2.7 million civilian employees, plus another 1.4 million military personnel is by far the largest employer in the country.
* The United States is seemingly addicted to spending more than it takes in.
* For the last 31 out of 35 years, the country has spent more than it has taken in.
* The U.S. has been running a trade deficit every year since 1970.
* Polls show that just one in four Americans favor raising taxes to reduce budget deficits.
* Most Americans do not want Social Security and/or Medicare benefits to be reduced, nor do they want to reduce defense spending.
* Any politician who ran a campaign on raising taxes and lowering spending would probably lose.
* The Social Security Trust Fund holds IOUs, not real money. More than $2 trillion has been "borrowed" by a government that seemingly has no way to pay that money back.
* Even if the War in Iraq were to end today and the Bush tax cuts were to expire today, we still would not be headed toward a balanced budget for the next fiscal year. Things are that bad!
* The IRS estimates that the "gap" between what individuals pay in federal income taxes and what they should be paying is more than $300 billion each year, with 80% of this estimated to come from partnerships and small businesses. But this is an example of relative "chicken feed" in relation to our total national debt.
* Even eliminating all waste, fraud and earmark spending in the federal government would do little to dent the increases in the federal debt.
* Japan and China, alone, hold a total of more than $1 trillion of the U.S. debt that is now more than $10 trillion and growing.
* 2010 will be the "high noon" of budget politics. This is when we have to take our first real "shot" at solving our problem.
* We need to have broken our plan down into little pieces, so that each can implemented in isolation.
* All Americans need to feel that they are doing their fair-share in making sacrifices.
* Significant changes have to be made in the way the federal budget is proposed, approved, overseen and communicated.
One chapter of the book actually invites the reader to make changes to the federal budget to put it in balance. 14 pages of federal budget categories and costs are given, and the reader is invited to reduce area as he/she feels appropriate to reduce. And there is a chapter about how to take statements by politicians with a "grain of salt." But, for my money, the best chapter of the book is the one that gives us the "Six Realities We Need to Accept to Solve This Problem." Two of these are 1) that we need to start now, and 2) that we need to move toward a "different state of mind" in our country about what we spend federal money on, how we can balance our budget on a regular basis, and how we can decrease our national debt, so that we are not the biggest debtor nation in the world.
The book ends with references (not including the National Committee for the Preservation of Social Security and Medicare, unfortunately) to guide you toward more information.
To me, the payback in reading the book is that it leaves you with is a feeling that 1) you better understand the components involved with the national debt, 2) you better understand the importance of the problem, and 3) that you are now part of the solution, not just the problem.
As a nation, we clearly need to put the shovel down and stop digging the hole we are in. I highly recommend this book as a basis of building a more informed, more involved populous relative to the changes that must come in our country, involved with the way we collect and spend money at the federal level. This is NOT a problem that we can ignore any longer. There is no way that it will go away by itself.
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About the author
Book seems used
Book does not seem new. There is residue on the front where stickers were removed from the book and the back is dirty.
