9. Ibid.
Chapter Eight
1. Tom A. Coburn, Oklahoma Waste Report: Exposing Washington’s Wasteful Spending Habits in Our Own Backyard, July 2011, http://www.coburn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?a=Files.Serve&File_id=4f875398-b8bd-4fff-a37a-2cfe984bc3ec.
2. Alex Cameron, “Sidewalks Stir Up Anger over Stimulus in Boynton,” News9: Oklahoma’s Own, April 12, 2010, http://www.news9.com/story/12298407/sidewalks-stir-up-anger-over-stimulus-in-boynton.
3. Coburn, Oklahoma Waste Report.
4. Coburn, Federal Programs to Die for: American Tax Dollars Sent Six Feet Under, October 2010, http://www.coburn.senate.gov/public//index.cfm?a=Files.Serve&File_id=406062be-b959-4798-b55e-39029197a9fc.
5. Coburn, Subsidies of the Rich and Famous, November 2011, http://www.coburn.senate.gov/public//index.cfm?a=Files.Serve&File_id=544ae3e7-195b-40ad-aa84-334fdd6a5elf.
6. Coburn, Wastebook 2012, March 2013, http://www.coburn.senate.gov/public//index.cfm?a=Files.Serve&File_id=b7b23f66-2d60-4d5a-8bc5-8522c7e1a40e.
7. Ibid.
8. Coburn, 2008: Worst Waste of the Year, December 2008, http://www.coburn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?a=Files.Serve&File_id=4dd719bc-8177-4772-93a6-926146d420d7.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid.
11. Coburn, Wastebook 2012.
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid.
15. Ibid.
16. Coburn, 2011 Wastebook: A Guide to Some of the Most Wasteful and Low Priority Government Spending of 2011, December 2011, http://www.coburn.senate.gov/public//index.cfm?a=Files.Serve&File_id=2b11ca9d-1315-4a7c-b58b-e06686e3aece.
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid.
19. Coburn, Wastebook 2010: A Guide to Some of the Most Wasteful Government Spending of 2010, December 2010, http://www.coburn.senate.gov/public//index.cfm?a=Files.Serve&File_id=4a184ddb-cd85-4052-b38b-5a1116acca8c.
20. Ibid.
21. Ibid.
22. Ibid.
23. Ibid.
24. Ibid.
25. Coburn, Wastebook 2012.
26. Phillip Swarts, “GAO Comptroller Says Federal Government Is Flying Blind, Wasting Money,” Washington Times, July 10, 2013, http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jul/10/gao-comptroller-says-federal-government-is-flying-/?page=all; “Financial Aid Performance Management: More Reliable and Complete Information Needed to Address Federal Management and Fiscal Challenges,” statement of Gene L. Dodaro, testimony before the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, House of Representatives, GAO.gov, July 10, 2013, http://gao.gov/assets/660/655803.pdf.
27. Ronald Bailey, “Federal Regulations Have Made You 75 Percent Poorer,” Reason, June 21, 2013, http://reason.com/archives/2013/06/21/federal-regulations-have-made-you-75-per/print.
28. Clyde Wayne Crews Jr., 2013 Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual Snapshot of the Federal Regulatory State, Competitive Enterprise Institute, May 2013, http://cei.org/sites/default/files/Wayne%20Crews%20-%2010,000%20Commandments%202013.pdf.
29. Ibid.
30. Peter Schroeder, “Dodd-Frank Regulations Would Fill 28 Copies of ‘War and Peace,’” The Hill, July 19, 2013, http://thehill.com/blogs/regwatch/finance/312205-dodd-frank-regs-dwarf-war-and-peace.
31. Crews, 2013 Ten Thousand Commandments.
32. Ibid.
33. Ibid.
34. Nicole V. Crain and W. Mark Crain, The Impact of Regulatory Costs on Small Firms, Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy, September 2010, http://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/The%20Impact%20of%20Regulatory%20Costs%20on%20Small%20Firms%20(Full).pdf.
35. Crews, 2013 Ten Thousand Commandments..
36. John W. Dawson and John J. Seater, “Federal Regulation and Aggregate Economic Growth,” Journal of Economic Growth 18, no. 2 (June 2013): 137–77, available at NCSU.edu, http://www4.ncsu.edu/~jjseater/regulationandgrowth.pdf.
37. Bailey, “Federal Regulations Have Made You 75 Percent Poorer.”
38. Alex Tabarrok, Launching the Innovation Renaissance: A New Path to Bring Smart Ideas to the Market Fast (New York: TED Books, 2011).
39. Meredith Whitney, Fate of the States: The New Geography of American Prosperity (New York: Penguin Group, 2013), 89–90.
40. Ibid., 60.
41. Eden Martin, “Even After Proposed Pension Fix, Illinois Would Still Be Broke,” Chicago Sun-Times, April 17, 2013, http://www.suntimes.com/news/martin/19543712-452/after-pension-fix-illinois-still-broke.html.
42. “Report: California’s Actual Debt At Least $848B; Could Pass $1.1T,” CBS Sacramento, May 1, 2013, http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2013/05/01/report-californias-actual-debt-set-at-848b-could-pass-1-1t/.
43. Walter Russell Mead, “California Rail Fail: Captain Brown and the Great White Train,” American Interest, January 15, 2012, http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2012/01/15/california-rail-fail-captain-brown-and-the-great-white-train/.
44. “Population of the 100 Largest Urban Places: 1950,” U.S. Bureau of the Census, June 15, 1998, http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0027/tab18.txt; “2010 Population Finder,” U.S. Census Bureau, 2010 Census, http://www.census.gov/popfinder/?fl=26:2600380:2622000.
45. Tyler Durden, “Detroit by the Numbers,” ZeroHedge.Com, July 24, 2013, http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-07-24/detroit-numbers.
46. Jeff Green and Mark Clothier, “U.S. Automakers Thrive as Detroit Goes Bankrupt,” Bloomberg.com, July 19, 2013, http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-19/u-s-automakers-thrive-as-detroit-goes-bankrupt.html.
47. Bill Nojay, “Lessons from a Front-Row Seat for Detroit’s Dysfunction,” Wall Street Journal, July 29, 2013, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323829104578623422748612116.html.
48. Mark Steyn, “The Downfall of Detroit,” National Review Online, July 19, 2013, http://www.nationalreview.com/article/353959/downfall-detroit-mark-steyn.
49. “Detroit Imposes Business Hours at Police Precincts,” FoxNews.Com, January 12, 2012, http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/01/12/detroit-imposes-business-hours-at-police-precincts/.
50. Steyn, “The Downfall of Detroit.”
51. Ibid.
52. Dennis Cauchon, “Some Federal Workers More Likely to Die Than Lose Jobs,” USA Today, July 19, 2011, http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/washington/2011-07-18-fderal-job-security_n.htm.
53. David Ignatius, “The Benghazi E-mails’ Backside-Covering,” Washington Post, May 17, 2013, http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/david-ignatius-the-benghazi-e-mails-backside-covering/2013/05/17/8a4f6fa2-be62-11e2-97d4-a479289a31f9_story.html.
54. Josh Hicks, “IRS Issued Billions in Improper Refunds, Report Says,” Washington Post, April 24, 2013, http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/wp/2013/04/24/irs-issued-billions-in-improper-refunds-report-says/.
55. David A. Fahrenthold, “Watch Him Pull a USDA-Mandated Rabbit Disaster Plan Out of His Hat,” Washington Post, July 16, 2013, http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/watch-him-pull-a-usda-mandated-rabbit-disaster-plan-out-of-his-hat/2013/07/16/816f2f66-ed66-11e2-8163-2c7021381a75_story.html.
56. David A. Fahrenthold, “One Grower’s Grapes of Wrath,” Washington Post, July 7, 2013, http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/one-growers-grapes-of-wrath/2013/07/07/ebebcfd8-e380-11e2-80eb-3145e2994a55_story.html.
57. Rob Nikolewski, “IRS Went After 83-Year-Old Tea Party Granny,” Washington Examiner, May 2013, http://washingtonexaminer.com/irs-went-after-83-year-old-tea-party-granny/article/2530131; Joe Newby, “GOP Rep. Aaron Schock: IRS Asked about Content of Pro-Life Group’s Prayers,” Examiner.com, May 18, 2013, http://www.examiner.com/article/gop-rep-aaron-schock-irs-aked-about-content-of-pro-life-group-s-prayers.
58. Gregory Korte, “IRS Approved Liberal Groups While Tea Party in Limbo,” USA Today, May 15, 2013, http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/05/14/irs-tea-party-progressive-groups/2158831/.
59. James Bovard, “A Brief History of IRS Political Targeting,” Wall Street Journal, May 14, 2013, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB
10001424127887324715704578482823301630836.html.
60. Joseph Weber, “EPA Acknowledges Releasing Personal Details on Farmers, Senator Slams Agency,” FoxNews.Com, April 9, 2013, http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/04/09/epa-acknowledges-giving-out-personal-info-in-request-that-included-data-on/.
61. Josh Hicks, “IRS Released Confidential Info on Conservative Groups to ProPublica,” Washington Post, May 14, 2013, http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/wp/2013/05/14/irs-released-confidential-info-on-conservative-groups-to-propublica/.
62. Sarah Kliff, “Budget Request Denied, Sebelius Turns to Health Executives to Finance Obamacare,” Washington Post, May 10, 2013, http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/05/10/budget-request-denied-sebelius-turns-to-health-executives-to-finance-obamacare/.
Chapter Nine
1. Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America.
2. Franklin D. Roosevelt, “Second Inaugural Address,” January 20, 1937, transcript available at Bartleby.com, http://www.bartleby.com/124/pres50.html.
3. Amity Shlaes, The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression (New York: HarperCollins, 2007), 230.
4. Ibid., 151.
5. “The FarmVille 2 Almanac of Records and Facts,” Zynga (blog), January 4, 2013, http://blog.zynga.com/2013/01/04/farmville2infographic/.
6. Gavin Newsom and Lisa Dickey, Citizenville: How to Take the Town Square Digital and Reinvent Government (New York: Penguin Group, 2013).
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10. Lincoln’s December 1862 message to Congress captured him at his very best, and his words seem especially appropriate for this time: “We can succeed only by concert. It is not ‘can any of us imagine better?’ but, ‘can we all do better?’ The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise—with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.”
11. Newsom and Dickey, Citizenville, emphasis added.
12. Randall Stross, “Wearing a Badge, and a Video Camera,” New York Times, April 6, 2013, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/07/business/wearable-video-cameras-for-police-officers.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0.
13. Adam Mazmanian, “Issa Reboots DATA Act,” FCW.com, May 16, 2013, http://fcw.com/articles/2013/05/16/issa-data-act.aspx.
14. Newsom and Dickey, Citizenville.
15. Ibid.
16. Tim O’Reilly, “Gov 2.0: It’s All about the Platform,” TechCrunch, September 4, 2009, http://techcrunch.com/2009/09/04/gov-20-its-all-about-the-platform/.
17. Statistics come from the U.S. Government Printing Office and Bureau of Economic Analysis. They are available here: http://stats.areppim.com/stats/stats_usxrecxspendxgdp.htm.
Chapter Ten
1. Karen Weise, “Record U.S. Poverty Rate Holds as Inequality Grows,” Bloomberg Businessweek, September 12, 2012, http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-09-12/record-u-dot-s-dot-poverty-rate-holds-as-inequality-grows; Hope Yen, “U.S. Poverty on Track to Rise to Highest since 1960s,” Huffington Post, July 22, 2012, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/22/us-poverty-level-1960s_n_1692744.html.
2. National Poverty Center, “Poverty in the United States: Frequently Asked Questions,” University of Michigan, accessed August 2013, http://www.npc.umich.edu/poverty/.
3. These data comes from World Bank statistics last updated July 12, 2013, using Google Public Data, http://www.google.com/public-data/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&ctype=l&met_y=ny_gdp_mktp_kd_zg#!ctype=l&strail=false&bcs=d&nselm=h&met_y=ny_gdp_mktp_kd_zg&scale_y=lin&ind_y=false&rdim=region&idim=country:USA&ifdim=region&hl=en_US&dl=en_US&ind=fals.
4. Joseph Dalaker, Poverty in the United States: 2000, U.S. Census Bureau, Current Populations Reports (U.S. Government Printing Office: Washington, D.C.), September 2001, http://www.census.gov/prod/2001pubs/p60-214.pdf.
5. Ibid.
6. Derek Thompson, “The Economic History of the World (After Jesus) in Four Slides,” Atlantic, June 20, 2012, http://finance.yahoo.com/news/economic-history-world-jesus-4-190149386.html.
7. Deirdre McCloskey, “Growth, Quality, Happiness, and the Poor,” quoted in John Tomasi, Free Market Fairness (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University, 2012), 59.
8. National Poverty Center, “Poverty in the United States: Frequently Asked Questions.”
9. Associated Press, “Big Cities Battle Dismal Graduation Rates,” CBS News, February 11, 2009, http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-201_162-3985714.html.
10. Lisa Fleisher and Alison Fox, “State Officials Release New Test Score Data, Proficiency Drops,” Wall Street Journal, August 7, 2013, http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2013/08/07/state-officials-release-new-test-score-data-scores-drop/.
11. Terence P. Jeffrey, “U.S. Department of Education: 79% of Chicago 8th Graders Not Proficient in Reading,” CNSNews.com, September 10, 2012, http://cnsnews.com/news/article/us-department-education-79-chicago-8th-graders-not-proficient-reading.
12. “Report: Nearly Half of Detroiters Can’t Read,” CBS Detroit, May 4, 2011, http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2011/05/04/report-nearly-half-of-detroiters-cant-read/.
13. “Salman Khan Talk at TED 2011,” YouTube video, from Salman Khan’s talk at TED 2011, posted by “khanacademy,” March 9, 2011, www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM95HHI4gLk.
14. See, for example, the Office of Policy Development and Research, Evaluation of the Family Self-Sufficiency Program: Prospective Study, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, February 2011.
15. Stephanie Wynn, “Once Upon a Time, a Little Girl Was Paid to Read,” Wall Street Journal, November 12, 1990.
16. Michael D. Tanner, “Welfare: A Better Deal Than Work,” National Review Online, August 21, 2013, available at Cato.org, http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/welfare-better-deal-work.
17. “Poverty,” U.S. Census Bureau, accessed August 2013, http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/data/.
18. Charles M. Blow, “Marriage and Minorities,” New York Times, August 2, 2013, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/03/opinion/blow-marriage-and-minorities.html?_r=0.
19. Ibid.
20. One in 31: The Long Reach of American Corrections, Pew Center on the States, March 2009, http://www.pewstates.org/uploaded-Files/PCS_Assets/2009/PSPP_1in31_report_FINAL_WEB_3-26-09.pdf.
21. “Start Early, Finish Strong: How to Help Every Child Become a Reader,” U.S. Department of Education, July 1999, http://www2.ed.gov/pubs/startearly/intro.html.
22. “Ensuring Success for Young Children: Early Childhood Literacy,” Association of Small Foundations, November 2008, http://www.aecf.org/~/media/Pubs/Topics/Education/Other/EnsuringSuccessforYoungChildrenLiteracy/Ensuring_Success_Early_Literacy.pdf.
23. Cindy Hendricks, James E. Hendricks, and Susie Kauffman, “Literacy, Criminal Activity, and Recidivism,” American Reading Forum, http://www.americanreadingforum.org/yearbook/yearbooks/01_yearbook/html/12_Hendricks.htm.
24. “Reentry Trends in the U.S.: Recidivism,” Bureau of Justice Statistics, accessed August 2013, http://www.bjs.gov/content/reentry/recidivism.cfm.
25. National Gang Intelligence Center, 2011 National Gang Threat Assessment: Emerging Trends, FBI, http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/2011-national-gang-threat-assessment.
26. Congressional Record, 13238, June 11, 1986.
27. John Gallagher, “Downtown Detroit Projects Slowed by Financing, Red Tape,” Detroit Free Press, May 10, 2013, http://www.freep.com/article/20130510/BUSINESS06/305100017/Detroit-development-Gallagher-Midtown.
Chapter Twelve
1. Nancy Cordes, “Probe: IRS Contractor Won Up To $500 Million in Questionable Bids,” CBS News, June 25, 2013, http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57591030/probe-irs-contractor-won-up-to-$500-million-in-questionable-bids/.
2. The video of this exchange can be seen in Ashley Killough, “Duckworth Rips Witness over Veterans Disability Claim,” Political Ticker, CNN,
June 26, 2013, http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/06/26/duckworth-rips-witness-over-veterans-disability-claim/.
3. Chana Joffe-Walt, “Unfit for Work: The Startling Rise of Disability in America,” All Things Considered, National Public Radio, March 2013, report available online at http://apps.npr.org/unfit-for-work/
4. Ibid.
5. Luke Rosiak, “EXography: Many Disability Recipients Admit They Could Work,” Washington Examiner, July 30, 2013, http://washingtonexaminer.com/exography-many-disability-recipients-admit-they-could-work/article/2533626.
6. Joffe-Walt, “Unfit for Work.”
7. Ibid.
8. Rosiak, “EXography: Many Disability Recipients Admit They Could Work.”
INDEX
$2.50 a Gallon: Why Obama Is Wrong and Cheap Gas is Possible Now, 82
60 Minutes, 126–27
A
Abigail Alliance for Better Access to Developmental Drugs, 3, 68
Abound Solar, 94–95, 99
Academy and College of Philadelphia, 154
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The, 38
Affordable Care Act, 55. See also Obamacare
African Americans, 39, 180–81
Agora Cyber Charter School, 36–37
AirBnb, 163
Alaskan Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), 82
Albuquerque, 158
Aldrin, Buzz, 128
Allen, Paul, 132
Al Qaeda, 79
Alzheimer’s disease, 13, 134, 188–89, 191
Amazon, 8, 40, 141, 161
American Philosophical Society, 154
Americans
and commuting, 108
and disabilities, 195–99
and the economy, 14, 141
and energy policy, 14, 75–78, 84, 90, 93–95
and environmental policy, 95–98
and government breakdown, 143, 152–53, 167–68, 207–8
and healthcare policy, 50, 56, 61–70, 187–90
and incarceration, 181–83
and outer space, 127–29
and poverty, 169–75, 179–81, 185–86
and previous breakouts, 6–8, 156–61
role in breakout of, 6, 19–23, 78, 84, 205, 207–9
Breakout: Pioneers of the Future, Prison Guards of the Past, and the Epic Battle That Will Decide America's Fate Page 26