Tom Schatz Interviews Martin L. Gross, Author of National Suicide: How Washington is Destroying the American Dream
September 30, 2009
by: Tom Schatz

Government WasteWatch, Fall 2009

Tom:  You wrote your bestseller “The Government Racket: Washington Waste From A to Z”, exposing government inefficiency back in 1992.  How have things changed in the federal government since then?

Martin:  They have gotten much worse. We were dealing then with deficits in the range of billions.  Now we are dealing in trillions.  From a $4 trillion dollar national debt under Clinton, we have now reached $12 trillion, quadrupled in just over a decade.

Tom:  What does this say about too many politicians?

Martin:  That they are wedded only to their own reelection by any means, including spending the people’s own money to buy their votes.  Founding Father Benjamin Franklin once said that when the people realize they can vote themselves money the Republic is finished.

Tom:  Are you intimating that politicians often lie to their constituents?

Martin:  More than intimating. Lying by politicians is a way of life, a genetic attribute of many of those we elect.  For example, the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) will cost unsuspecting innocent taxpayers $1 trillion over then decade even though they may not have an increase in income, but only because they are using legitimate deductions like state and local taxes.  The government says they made a “mistake” in not indexing the AMT exemption for inflation.  It was no mistake. The “mistake” was discovered years ago, and went through nine administrations without being corrected.  Congress once passed a law to eliminate that unfair tax, but Clinton vetoed it as a “tax cut “ we couldn’t afford.  It was all a blatant Washington lie from the onset.

Tom:  Why does everything seems to cost so much more than originally planned?

Martin:  The system is called “low-balling” and is a favorite trick of politicians, who pretend that things will not cost much in order to get the programs passed.  Medicare part D was estimated to cost $400 billion, but the amount was soon raised to $534 billion.  An investigation showed that the cost analyst knew the true cost from the beginning, but was told not to reveal it to the public.  Otherwise, he’s have been fired.  This low-balling is routinely used to fool the public.  The new Capitol Visitor Center was supposed to cost only $265 million – it came at over $600 million.  Naturally.

Tom:  What about government employee dishonesty?  How commonplace is it? 

Martin:  You be the judge, Tom.  Half a million credit cards were handed out to federal employees to make small purchases for the goverrnment.  The result?  A small spot check of the Department of Agriculture turned up $7.7 million in unauthorized personal use of the cards.  Another small study showed that federal employees used government credit cards to run up $102,000 for entertainment, $48,000 for gambling, and $74,000 for exotic strip clubs.  In all, hundreds of millions have been stolen under Washington’s loose “honor” system.

Tom:  What’s another area of a large waste of government money?

Martin:  Of course, it’s pork, as Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) knows well:  from $107,000 to study the sex life of the Japanese Quail to $845,043 for people to watch cider being pressed on a farm.  In all, CAGW has found $271 billion in pork since 1991.  The epidemic infects both parties…these days, it’s 60 percent for Democrats and 40 percent for Republicans.  Even the supposedly frugal Republican Leader Rep. Mitch McConnell (Ky.) has refused to make a pledge to stop asking for “earmarks. 

Duplication is another huge problem.  There are 163 different job training programs in the federal government, which costs us $20 billion a year.  Overall, we are dealing with tens of billions of dollars in wasteful redundancy.  There are 70 different drug abuse programs for young people in 13 separate agencies; 72 different statistical programs; 515 separate government labs; 50 programs for the homeless; 27 programs for teenage pregnancy.  Congress keeps passing expensive duplicative laws and the president keeps signing them.  That’s what passes for modern government in Washington.

Tom:  What can be done to make the federal government operate better and become solvent instead of leading us to “national suicide,” as you warn in your new book? 

Martin:  I try to reform Washington in my conclusion, called “Instructions for the President,” in which I cut $600 billion a year in cost, and reorganize the inefficient, government, probably the worse central operation in the developed world. It’s most unfortunate, especially since in the private sector, America is the greatest nation in the history of the world.

Tom:  When is the book being published?

Martin:  On September 1, 2009.  It is a paperback in order to keep the price nominal.  I think you’ll find it edifying and worth reading, especially if you love America, as I do, and fear Washington could destroy the magnificent American dream