Publisher's Weekly Review
Despite the authors' impressive credentials--Potter is an analyst at the Center for Public Integrity and Penniman runs the group Issue One, which advocates for campaign finance reform--there's little here that readers won't have seen before, at least if they have any knowledge of the role of money in contemporary American politics. The basic facts are largely familiar: the millions the Koch brothers intend to spend to influence the 2016 presidential election, the damaging effect of the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision. Potter and Penniman hope to make this issue a subject of everyday conversation, by linking corruption to policy decisions that are made in opposition to the public interest. They do so in sections on how money influences federal legislation on energy, banking, medicine, and toxins, but again break no new ground. The final section delivers an exhortation to a disenfranchised electorate to reclaim its government, but the authors offer little grounds for hope; on the federal level, they note that President Barack Obama and the SEC could have taken unilateral action but haven't yet, without explaining why there's any likelihood that they might do so in the future. This is a good primer for someone completely new to the topic. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
An examination of how "the rapid proliferation of a system akin to oligarchywithin our own countrythreatens to cripple our march forward." Center for Public Integrity senior analyst Potter (Obamacare? What's in It for Me, 2013, etc.) and Issue One executive director Penniman cite historical and current incidents of America's "coin-operated government" and its outsized influence on legislation. Money dominates the political system as it muzzles more Americans than it empowers. The authors especially point to the election of 1896, in which businessman Marcus Hanna bankrolled William McKinley's campaign "almost entirely with his own money." That election recorded, as a percentage of GDP, the largest spending levels ever, before or since. With a ray of hope, the authors point out that Theodore Roosevelt's administration turned the tables on corporate spending. Later, the Tillman Act of 1907 and the Hatch Act of 1939 tried to limit campaign activity and contributions. The Taft Hartley Act of 1943 banned direct spending by unions and corporations, which led to the creation of the first PACs. The authors pull no punches regarding the "corrupting influence" of the Citizens United decision, and they succinctly and clearly expose the direct influence of lobbyists for such industries as banking, mortgages, oil and other fossil fuels, pharmaceuticals, coal, and even food and beverages. Lobbyists demand self-regulation, threaten job losses if they have too many rules, and encourage delaying tactics in Congress. Thankfully, Potter and Penniman offer practical answers and point out that reform beginning at the local level is most effective and that "sunlight is the baseline for all reform." As they note, the underfunded and dysfunctional Federal Election Commission, the IRS, the president, and the Securities and Exchange Commission all have tools to help, but they have to use them. The authors are necessarily forceful, and they offer a well-written must-read for those ready to give up hope about politics and government in the United States. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Money talks, nobody walks, might once have been a catchy ad slogan for a men's department store, but it could also just as easily sum up the feeling most Americans have about the way government operates, or doesn't. Money, in the form of PACs, SuperPACS, and their ilk, influences nearly every policy initiative and piece of legislation pertaining to everything from the food we eat to the air we breathe. The ensuing quid-pro-quo funding battles between opposing special-interest groups pursuing favorable votes means that nothing substantive ever shifts the paradigm off the status quo. Thanks to such recent events as the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision and lack of meaningful campaign-finance reform, politicians are more accessible to and influenced by corporate lobbyists than at any time since William McKinley was president. Potter (Deadly Spin, 2010) and Penniman, veteran public-policy analysts and critics, weigh in with a trove of supporting evidence to expose and explain current big-money corruption, and offer concrete ways citizens can indeed unite to overturn such abuses.--Haggas, Carol Copyright 2015 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Potter (analyst, Ctr. for Public Integrity; Deadly Spin) and Penniman (executive director, Issue One) deliver a call to action against the expanding role big money plays in U.S. politics. They begin by documenting the scale of the problem with facts and figures, then provide a brief history of events and decisions that have brought the country to this point. Next, they offer case studies of lobbying by banking, pharmaceutical (a subject in which Potter is especially knowledgeable and critical), energy, agriculture, and chemical industries, and conclude with a rallying cry to bring government back under the control of the people by rejecting cynicism, broadening participation, and building on successful state and local models. Their argument is impassioned and accessible, in contrast to a more thorough, balanced, and academically informed treatment as found in Kenneth Godwin and others' Lobbying and Policymaking. VERDICT This book will interest readers concerned about money in politics during the 2016 election cycle but may not have lasting appeal.-Jennifer M. Miller, Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
