The Federal Subsidy Beast : The Rise of a Supreme Power in a Once Great Democracy - Hardcover

Finegan, Brian J.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0967444519 ISBN 13: 9780967444512

Publisher: Alary Pr, 2000

Synopsis

Finegan, trained as an engineer, had experiences over a 21-year period with various federal departments that led to his research for this book. He presents a very critical and very detailed analysis of the costs and results of a vast array of government-subsidized programs. It is his conviction that such programs inevitably lose their original purpose and begin consuming tax-payers' money needlessly. He characterizes Social Security, for example, as "the giant federal Ponzi scheme." In the concluding chapter, Finegan offers his proposal for a state based subsidy plan that would strip the federal government of its authority to subsidize any entity. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

About this title

About the Author

Brian J. Finegan, a graduate of the New York University School of Engineering, is an expert on federal subsidies. His experiences with the Departments of Energy, Defense, Housing and Urban Development, Agriculture and Interior over a twenty-year period led to the nine-year research project that resulted in this book.

From the Back Cover

The Federal Subsidy Beast is the definitive study of federal subsidy programs stripped of their political cover: Alternative Energy * Americorps * Amtrak * Animal Damage Control * Banking * Dams * Davis-Bacon * Defense * Deposit Insurance * Disability * Disaster Assistance * Education * Electricity * Ethanol * Export Assistance * Farm Support * Emergency Management * Flood Control * Flood Insurance * Food Stamps * Foreign Aid * Government Employment * Government Enterprises * Head Start * Health Care * Highways * Hospitals * Housing Assistance * Irrigation * Job Training * Livestock Grazing * Loan Guarantees * Maritime Assistance * Mass Transit * Medicaid * Medicare * Mining * Mortgages * NASA * Nuclear Energy * Nutrition Programs * Oil & Gas * Pensions * Pollution Externalities * Real Estate * Research * Rural Development * Savings and Loans * Small Business * Social Security * Student Loans * Supplemental Income * Taxes * Timber * Urban Development * Water Projects * Welfare "The Federal Subsidy Beast, with elegant marshalling of facts and eloquent argument, tells us forcefully what we already know but don't like to think about. Finegan shows us in a way that we can't ignore that it is time we face the facts before it is too late. And he shows us the only way out. His is the only prescription that will save our suffering society."

--Clyde Wilson, Professor of History, University of South Carolina "Finegan has produced a well thought out, well researched, and well written book. It is written to inform as well as to persuade, and its prose makes its points effectively, sometimes strikingly. There is much persons familiar with government operations can learn from it."

--Robert Scigliano, Professor of Political Science, Boston College "Brian Finegan spent nine years and used 1,848 source citations in compiling his stories of waste, mismanagement and abuse of taxpayers by the federal politicians and bureaucrats supposedly working for you. Read The Federal Subsidy Beast and judge for yourself whether your employees' stewardship is up to your standards." --A. Ernest Fitzgerald, author of The High Priests of Waste and The Pentagonists

From the Inside Flap

After many years of budget deficits and a ballooning national debt, President Clinton announced in 1998 that the nation had entered a new era characterized by "surpluses as far as the eye can see." Yet, just a few months later, in February 1999, the Comptroller General of the United States warned that even if the trillions of dollars of projected surpluses materialize, federal spending is still growing so fast that it will be unsustainable in a few decades. The federal government will not be able to tax or borrow enough to pay its bills. Such is the ravenous appetite of the federal Subsidy Beast.

In an unprecedented examination of federal largesse, this book exposes the monster that has rendered the body politic powerless. Researched for nine years and painstakingly documented, The Federal Subsidy Beast details the origin, intent, and actual outcome of all significant federal subsidy programs. It is not a pretty picture. One after another, well-intended programs have become gravy trains for those who do not need government support, bureaucrats, and politicians.

Brian Finegan identifies the characteristics that are common to nearly all subsidies and for each program shows how they undermine effectiveness, maximize expenditures, and insure program immortality. Taken together, subsidy programs now consume 60 percent of the budget and are on a path to devour all federal revenues in as little as 25 years.

Contrary to their claims of cutting spending and balancing the budget, Congress and the President have consistently broken legislated spending caps, increased spending, and refused to balance the budget. The force behind this ever-expanding spending is subsidy programs which have become the primary function of the federal government. However, the government does not control these programs; rather, the Subsidy Beast commands the President and Congress. The government of the most powerful nation on earth has an absolute master.

As the voters have correctly discerned, elections have become irrelevant because there is only one party: The Subsidy Party. The only difference between party members is that those in the left wing favor social subsidies while those on the right favor business subsidies. But they all serve the Subsidy Beast and that insures that existing programs are perennially funded and that new ones are continuously added.

The final chapter of The Federal Subsidy Beast presents compelling arguments that neither term limits, campaign finance reform, nor a balanced budget amendment will solve the problem and prevent an intergenerational war. Rather, the key to taming the Subsidy Beast is to create a market for taxpayers. It can be done and this book shows how.

Edition details

• Publisher: Alary Pr
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0967444519
• ISBN 13: 9780967444512
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 360