What Every American Should Know About Who's Really Running America: And What You Can Do About It - Softcover

Rossi, Melissa

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0452288207 ISBN 13: 9780452288201

Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 2007

Synopsis

A guide to the politicos, money men, lobbyists, and deal makers who really run America

What foreign country has the power to send America crashing into a recession? Why is the USA still dangerously dependent on oil, when viable energy alternatives have existed for decades? Who made the call that we should return to nuclear energy—and then took a high-paying position with a nuclear company? Which youth group was a spawning ground for many contemporary power mongers? What lobbyists and special-interest groups are running the show on Capitol Hill—and exactly what tools of persuasion are they using?

Melissa Rossi answers these questions and more in this timely and topical guide to who’s pulling the strings behind the scenes of American politics. This latest edition of Rossi’s popular What Every American Should Know. . . series puts the spotlight on our own backyard, covering topics like:

· Which groups ensure that Americans pay more for drugs than any other nation
· How our immigration laws are damaging the U.S. economy
· Who’s telling the school boards what your child will learn
· Who really benefits from U.S. foreign policy
· How corporations and government agencies are spying on us
· Why we should avoid electronic voting
· Who killed the electric car and who exposed it

Organized by topic for easy reference, What Every American Should Know About Who’s Really Running America shows Americans what is going on behind the scenes and how they can counterbalance the influence of a small, powerful elite to put the power back where it should be—in the hands of the people.

About this title

About the Author

Melissa Rossi is an award-winning veteran journalist who has penned articles for Newsweek, Newsday, Esquire, George, MSNBC, The New York Observer, and, until recently, wrote a regular column for National Geographic Traveler. She has written extensively about Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, and has lived abroad for many years.

From Publishers Weekly

Narrowing her focus, journalist Rossi follows up 2005's What Every American Should Know About Who's Really Running the World with this critical look at the U.S. government. A case of loonies running the nuthouse, Rossi reports that lobbyists and special-interest groups have overtaken Capitol Hill; in chapter after chapter, she offers insightful evidence as to how government representatives make decisions affecting the lives of their constituencies based on the suggestions of special-interest powerbrokers. In this way, she argues, greed and poor judgment have produced any number of ills for America, such as the highest prescription drug prices in the world. Rossi also unearths lesser known schemes, such as who's got the ear of the school boards and which laws America's wealthiest families are working to repeal. Taking readers name-by-name, organization-by-organization and scandal-by-scandal through the American government's recent history, Rossi covers some familiar ground, but the sheer volume of material assures readers will turn up something they had not known or long forgotten. The knowledge she pulls together and shares proves the volume's most useful contribution to the cause of government reform.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0452288207
• ISBN 13: 9780452288201
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 304