Extortion: How Politicians Extract Your Money, Buy Votes, and Line Their Own Pockets - Hardcover

Schweizer, Peter

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0544103343 ISBN 13: 9780544103344

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013

Synopsis

A bombshell investigation reveals how Washington really works: politicians extort money from us, then use it to buy each other’s votes. Best-selling author Peter Schweizer reveals:

*Obama’s "Protection Money": How the Obama Administration targeted industries for criminal investigation but chose not to pursue key political donors.

*John Boehner’s "Tollbooth": How the Speaker of the House extracts money by soliciting political donations before he will hold crucial votes on the House floor.

*The "Slush Fund": How politicians extract "campaign contributions" and then convert them to bankroll lavish lifestyles complete with limos, private jets, golf at five-star resorts, fine wines, and cash for family members.

*Capitol Hill’s "Underground Economy": How congressmen use a little-known loophole that allows them to secretly link their votes to cash.

Extortion finally makes clear why Congress is so dysfunctional: it’s all about making money, not making law.

About this title

Book Description

HMH hardcover, 2013, previous ISBN 978-0-544-10334-4

From the Back Cover

Schweizer names guilty parties . . . He exposes powerful figures in politics, law firms, and corporations. Forbes
Washington is no longer about lawmaking, it s about moneymaking
Conventional wisdom holds that Washington is broken because outside special interests bribe politicians. The reverse is true: politicians have developed a new set of brass-knuckle legislative tactics designed to extort wealthy industries and donors into forking over big donations cash that lawmakers often funnel into the pockets of their friends and family.
Inside this best-selling bombshell of a book, Schweizer reveals the exorbitant secret fees each political party charges politicians for top committee assignments; how fourteen members of Congress bagged hundreds of thousands of dollars using a little-known self-loan loophole; how politicians use PACs to bankroll lavish lifestyles; and much more. Washington s extortion racket has gone unreported until now.
[Author photo] (c) Becky Healy
Peter Schweizer is the president of the Government Accountability Institute and is the William J. Casey Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He has served as a consultant to NBC News and to the White House Office of Presidential Speechwriting. He is the author of Throw Them All Out.

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Edition details

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0544103343
• ISBN 13: 9780544103344
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256