cover image What Every American Should Know about Who's Really Running America

What Every American Should Know about Who's Really Running America

M. L. Rossi, Melissa Rossi. Plume Books, $16 (304pp) ISBN 978-0-452-28820-1

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.