Product DescriptionHere’s the Real Deal! The same Washington politicians who took control of Congress by promising to balance the federal budget are now bankrupting America by launching the biggest spending spree in the history of the United States. With big-spending Democrats at their side, President George Bush and his “conservative” Republican Congress have controlled the government’s checkbook while the national debt has skyrocketed past seven trillion dollars. That’s right, $7,000,000,000,000. How has the party of Reagan become the party of big- government spending?Now former Republican congressman Joe Scarborough delivers a scathing indictment of Republicans and Democrats alike in the same informed, hard-hitting, and entertaining style fans of Scarborough Country have come to admire. Having had a ringside seat during his four terms in the House of Representatives, Scarborough gives the inside scoop on how Washington really works and on the spending orgy the Republicans have fueled the last ten years. The story begins with Newt Gingrich’s Contract with America and the Republicans promising to balance the budget and reform Washington. It culminates with a Republican president continually rubber-stamping pork-filled appropriations bills that squander taxpayer dollars. That is, unless you think it’s necessary to spend millions of dollars on research into “alternative salmon products” in Alaska, or the study of crickets in Utah, or of sea turtles in Hawaii. Sadly, these instances merely hint at the gross spending by Congress.
but not with all Joe says in this book. I agree that he’s the only good reason to watch MSNBC.
I have not read this book. I gave it four stars because I have read several reviews, comments, and synopses, and I watch Joe on TV. I feel I know enough about what he is saying in this book to have an opinion.
Where I may disagree with Joe is on the national debt. We live in strange and fearful times. 911 sent us reeling into a recession that was already put in place by the end of the Clinton administration. The war on terrorism could lead us into something close to bankruptcy if we don’t prosecute it better and faster, and stop giving these terrorists places to safely hide. This is skyrocketing the cost of the war. The longer the war takes, the larger are national debt will become.
But, what do we do? The war on terrorism must be fought, although much better than we’re doing it now. John Kerry would only make this war worse, and he would probably cut and run. That would save some money, but what would it cost us in the long run?
The national debt is a big problem, but I think we need to give congress a little slack on this. They have some huge problems,and it will take a huge amount of money to solve them.
Rating: 4 / 5
Joe Scarborough of Pensacola, Florida, knows this subject from the get-go, as he served in Congress for seven years. He confirms what the young aide to Clinton explained in DERELICTION IN OFFICE that golf was the only thing he knew how to do well, with the exception of entertaining young women in the Oval Office.
He writes, “Instead of sexual tricks or epicurean delights, it is usually the male ego that drives most political and policy trains in Washington. ” I have news for him, it’s that way all over the world, Knoxville, Podunk, even Rome. No, Rome wasn’t built in a day, but could have been burnt in half a day — had the need surfaced.
Clinton was able to balance the budget with a massive 1993 tax hike and the tremendous cut back of the military. That is the main reason so many American men are dying right now in Iraq — the lack of competent military equipment. In the latest TIME magazine, the most recent fatalities were shown and seven were in that beautiful Marine uniform. They are dead; they did not get to enjoy being dressed to kill, as they were killed. Why deceive these young men into being guinea pigs in a political war over oil rights and money.
The “Fat White Pink Boys” are a certain class of political hacks who checked their manhood at Washington’s city limits. Some even migrated down here to Knoxville, Tennessee. We have a plentiful supply of that kind of politician. In fact, that’s about the only kind of politician we have here. Since our former mayor (14 years) was a college classmate of Bush’s and was relagated ambassador to Poland, I guess those pink boys all stick together to hang onto their money while making the populace suffer. The men here can’t even talk like men, have high voices and sound like kids. The short ones even look like dressed up children on their way to church.
He relates what happened to him on 9-11-01. We will all remember where we were when we heard. I was in the emergency room of Hillcrest Hospital watching it on the television set and asking “do we have suicide bombers here?” not really aware of the vastness of the dire acts of terrorism. The day all of those innocent people died in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania, I learned that the hemangioma on my liver would not kill me right away. They died while I had a reprieve. What a coincidence. What timing! Now my anemia is causing me to have a yellow tint — has the liver caught up with me just four years later? I will never willingly die. I shall haunt the KAT buses and the Tennessee Theatre when my time comes; in the meantime, I plan to live forever. And I hope Scarborough Country does, too. More power to you, Joe. Go get ‘em!
Rating: 3 / 5
“Republicans aren’t the party of Reagan anymore” implies that Reagan’s party, unlike the current one, ran a balanced budget or something close to it. Check your facts: the deficit tripled under Reagan.
Rating: 4 / 5
This is a terrific book but I wonder who wrote it, certainly not Scarborough who is just another Republican apologist and not serious himself about the main points of the book.
Joe Scarborough is a phony.
Rating: 4 / 5
I’d always wanted to pick up this book when Joe started first promoting it on his show, and whole stacks of them found their way at the $1 store, so of course, who could pass up a book like this for just a buck?
Anyway, didn’t know what to expect, but man, a real eye-opener. It’s one thing when you suspect something to be the case (all the cliches about gov’t), and something else altogether when someone who was there told it like it was.
I think the most interesting point that resonated with me was one I had long suspected – one party should never have complete control of washington, or the spending sprees will be out of control, no matter who it is.
While the writing style was fun to read (I couldn’t put the book down), at times it was disorganized, moving here, there, and everywhere throughout Joe’s journey in congress, and at times there was a bit too much repetition. Otherwise, a great read.
Rating: 4 / 5