CITATIONS FOR SAVE THE SWAMP
Note: This online source citation accompanying the book Save the Swamp is neither comprehensive nor exhaustive. It is simply meant to identify the sources of data referenced in the book and to suggest further reading for those interested.
FOREWORD
- Ken Buck, Drain the Swamp: How Washington Corruption is Worse Than You Think (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2017).
- Kellie Lunney, “House Majority Leader Calls ‘Career Bureaucrats’ the Washington Swamp in Op-Ed,” Government Executive, January 25, 2017.
- President Barack Obama, “Remarks at a Campaign Event in Roanoke, Virginia,” July 13, 2012.
GETTING STARTED
- Executive Branch Departments.
- All federal government agencies and offices.
- Non-teachers in K-12 public education systems.
- Number of Americans employed by government.
- Percentage of Americans paid directly or indirectly by government.
- New bureaucratic boards, commissions, programs, and government offices created by the Affordable Care Act.
- Incumbency rates for members of Congress.
- Wine consumption in DC
- Overview of classical liberal arts education.
CH 1 – REGULATIONS: YOUR DISTRUST AND SUSPICION EMPOWERED
- Text of the Declaration of Independence.
- Declaration of Independence explained.
- Text of the United States Constitution
- United States Constitution explained.
- Quotation from Thomas Jefferson.
- The administrative state as the rule of intelligence.
CH 2 – REGULATIONS: GUILTY UNTIL PROVEN INNOCENT
CH 3 – NON-LEGISLATORS LEGISLATING: HOW REGULATIONS ARE MADE
- “I’m Just A Bill,” from Schoolhouse Rock.
- Regulatory Studies Center within the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences at George Washington University.
CH 4 – NON-EXECUTIVES ENFORCING AND NON-JUDGES JUDGING: HOW REGULATIONS COME TO HAVE THE FORCE OF LAW
- The Federalist Papers #47.
- The Federalist Papers explained.
- Regulatory agencies combining all three political powers.
- Supreme Court unable to enforce its own decisions.
- Chevron Doctrine defined by lawyers.
- Chevron Doctrine Two Step.
- Gary Lawson describes the administrative processes within the Federal Trade Commission.
- FDR and the Department of Agriculture.
CH 5 – DON’T WORRY ABOUT THE CONSTITUTION: YOU HAVE IMPORTANT WORK TO DO
- Quotations from Chapter 3 of Woodrow Wilson’s 1908 book Constitutional Government in the United States.
- Justice William Brennan explains why the Constitution belongs to “a world dead and gone.”
CH 6 – RESULTS DON’T MATTER, INTENTIONS DO
- Original purposes of the United States Department of Education.
- Salaries at the United States Department of Education.
- 2015 budget for the United States Department of Education.
- Government education spending in the U.S. versus education achievement in the U.S.
- Wild Horse and Burro Program planned to slaughter 45,000 horses.
- War on Drugs.
- Welfare.
- For a succinct history of how early generations of Americans helped each other when in need, see chapter 6 of Thomas G. West’s book Vindicating the Founders.
- War on Poverty.
- Regulatory failure.
CH 7 – YOU’LL MAKE EVERYTHING MORE EXPENSIVE, WHICH THE POOR WON’T LIKE, BUT IT’D BE FOR THEIR OWN GOOD
- Costs of regulations.
- TV prices.
- The Constitution of Somalia, which guarantees all kinds of things for Somalians, including free education.
- The Maddison Project.
- Gapminder.
- North Korea and South Korea.
- Study of regulatory costs by the United States Chamber of Commerce.
- Study of regulatory costs by National Association of Manufacturers.
- VA hospital.
CH 8 – INNOVATION BAD, REGULATIONS GOOD: KEEP DOING THINGS THE OLD WAY
- The problem of horse manure prior to the invention of the automobile.
- Uber and taxi companies.
- Markets, innovation, and increased productivity solved the problem of child labor in the United States, not laws and regulations.
CH 9 – COMPETITION BAD, REGULATIONS GOOD: IT’S A JUNGLE OUT THERE
- Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations.
- Closing of community banks following the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
CH 10 – RESPONSIBILITY BAD, REGULATIONS GOOD: WHO ME? I WAS FOLLOWING REGULATIONS
- Is government to blame for Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico?
- When scandals are exposed at big financial institutions, maybe government and regulations are to blame?
CH 11 – YOUR INCENTIVE TO PLEASE YOUR SUPERVISOR, NOT CITIZENS
- In 2015, only 0.18% of federal bureaucrats were fired for poor performance or misconduct.
- Bureaucrats watching porn at work.
CH 12 – YOUR INCENTIVE TO FAIL
CH13 – YOUR INCENTIVE FOR CORRUPTION, ER, CRONY “PARTNERSHIPS”
- Who pays income taxes.
- Subsidies for green energy.
- Government licensure for government lobbyists.
- For a detailed account of how members of Congress pay for committee assignments, see Ken Buck’s book Drain the Swamp.
- Planned Parenthood pledges $20 million to help Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
CH 14 – SATISFYING YOUR DESIRE FOR POWER TRIPS AND ABUSING AUTHORITY
- To understand better how human beings tend to behave when they possess a monopoly on legalized force over others, see the infamous Stanford Prison Experiment.
- Democide statistics.
- Congressional testimony about contradictory regulations.
- Life expectancy historically.
- How fossil fuels help human beings.
- Cited essay for the claim that 97% of scientists agree on manmade global warming.
- Song from the musical Camelot.
CH 15 – PASSING THE BUCK: WHY ELECTED POLITICIANS LOVE UNELECTED BUREAUCRATS
- Example of political science research on the subject of independent regulatory agencies.
- EPA turns Colorado’s Animas River yellow.
CH 16 – CATEGORY 4 CHOICES: THE GOVERNMENT’S RIGHT TO CHOOSE
CH 17 – PRIVATE PROPERTY: SOURCE OF ALL SOCIAL ILLS
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin and the Foundations of Inequality Among Men.
- Karl Marx, Das Kapital
- Chicago city alderman threatens zoning changes against property owner.
CH 18 – A BUREAUCRAT’S WORST NIGHTMARE: TURNING REGULATORY AGENCIES INTO ADVISORY COMMISSIONS
THE IMPORTANT WORK AHEAD
