What do you think?
Rate this book
Robbing Us Blind: The Return of the Bush Gang and the Mugging of America
A century ago, Kansas farmers called them "The Robber Barons" and Teddy Roosevelt singled them out as "malefactors of great wealth." Steve Brouwer rigorously marshals the devastating evidence and indicts the Bush Gang for encouraging a corporate crime wave (Savings and Loan scandals of the 1980s; Harkin and Halliburton; Enron, WorldCom and Arthur Anderson) and promoting the greatest economic inequality since the 1920s. While Brouwer teases the Bushes for following the "Skull and Bones" flag of their elite Yale club, he also -levels the serious charge that they are "pirates." The richest 1% of Americans grabs 20.3% of our national income. They have overwhelmed democracy with campaign bribery. Brouwer’s book is indispensable to ousting the buccaneers. Steve Brouwer has been writing for two decades.
180 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2003
7 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 26, 2008
This book looks at the myriad of ways that average and lower-income Americans have been systematically robbed of their monetary wealth through deliberate government policy. That wealth has been given to the top 1 percent of the people, in terms of income, by a group of elites and super-rich that the author calls the Bush Gang. The Bush family has been at, or near, the seat of American power for 16 of the last 24 years.
To give one example, from 1982 to 2002, the number of Americans without health care jumped from 25 million to 43 million, a rise of more than 50 percent. In that same period, the number of American billionaires rose from 13 to 229.
The Bush Gang's plan looks something like this: Give tax relief to corporations and the very rich. Build up the military with big increases in defense spending. Be very aggressive in international relations. Deregulate business as much as possible. Overlook the criminal actions of those businessmen who support this agenda. Ignore the real possibility of large deficits. Also, attack labor and working Americans as much as possible.
This book covers a number of topics. The Bush remedy for a sick economy is CEOs who will drive up a company's stock price by laying off thousands of workers. There has been a systematic plan to keep wages low for most Americans in order to transfer wealth to the richest. The famous Skull and Bones club at Yale was originally endowed in the 1830s by the Russell Trust. It was connected to a company that, at the time, was the premier American smuggler of opium. The media, especially Rupert Murdoch and Fox News, can be counted on to keep up the fear level. One of the justifications for tax cuts is that the money will be used for new investment. Has that happened over the last 25 years?
What is to be done? The Democratic Party needs to get a backbone. It should not blame Ralph Nader for the results of the 2000 election, but itself. It needs to push its vision for America: higher minimum wage, federally funded health care for all, full employment, public works spending that fixes America's infrastructure, good public schools, etc.
This is a gem of a book. Can't get ahead financially? This book gives part of the reason. It's highly recommended.
To give one example, from 1982 to 2002, the number of Americans without health care jumped from 25 million to 43 million, a rise of more than 50 percent. In that same period, the number of American billionaires rose from 13 to 229.
The Bush Gang's plan looks something like this: Give tax relief to corporations and the very rich. Build up the military with big increases in defense spending. Be very aggressive in international relations. Deregulate business as much as possible. Overlook the criminal actions of those businessmen who support this agenda. Ignore the real possibility of large deficits. Also, attack labor and working Americans as much as possible.
This book covers a number of topics. The Bush remedy for a sick economy is CEOs who will drive up a company's stock price by laying off thousands of workers. There has been a systematic plan to keep wages low for most Americans in order to transfer wealth to the richest. The famous Skull and Bones club at Yale was originally endowed in the 1830s by the Russell Trust. It was connected to a company that, at the time, was the premier American smuggler of opium. The media, especially Rupert Murdoch and Fox News, can be counted on to keep up the fear level. One of the justifications for tax cuts is that the money will be used for new investment. Has that happened over the last 25 years?
What is to be done? The Democratic Party needs to get a backbone. It should not blame Ralph Nader for the results of the 2000 election, but itself. It needs to push its vision for America: higher minimum wage, federally funded health care for all, full employment, public works spending that fixes America's infrastructure, good public schools, etc.
This is a gem of a book. Can't get ahead financially? This book gives part of the reason. It's highly recommended.
Displaying 1 of 1 review