Government Budget

In a sweeping narrative about the people and the politics behind the budget, Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter David Wessel looks at the 2011 fiscal year (which ended September 30) to see where all the money was actually spent, and why the budget process has grown wildly out of control.

We hear it every day: government spending is out of control. Yet, despite all the rhetoric coming out of Washington about the need to cut spending, we continue to go deeper and deeper into debt. If we're serious about restoring America to fiscal health, we must do something about government spending, not just talk about it. So argues U.S. Senator Mike Lee in his new book, The Freedom Agenda.

With the decline of traditional journalism, there are precious few inquiring eyes watching government and the public service. How can any of us know how our tax dollars are being spent? But there is good news. For at least the past decade, governments at all levels have been busy publishing truckloads of data representing official policies and their outcomes. For the most part, that data is available in the public domain and just sits there, waiting for us to come and get it. This book was written with the hope and expectation that sophisticated data analytics tools can tame those ...

What happens when the most powerful nation in the world goes bankrupt? The United States is teetering on the edge of financial collapse. With over $34 trillion in national debt, reckless government spending, and corruption at the highest levels, America is headed toward economic disaster—one that politicians and the media don’t want you to see coming. In America on the Brink, investigative journalist Wayne C. Robinson uncovers the shocking truth about government waste, fraud, and abuse that have drained trillions of taxpayer dollars, pushing the country closer to financial ruin. From ...