How did American government get so big and so expensive? Steven Malanga gives the answer in Shakedown, a chilling history of the expansion of the public sector. A self-interested coalition of public employees' unions and government-financed community activists has bankrupted state and local governments. Through increased government spending and backroom entitlement deals with politicians, this new political powerhouse is filling its coffers at the expense of taxpayers. The bill for this conspiracy against the American taxpayer is now coming due.

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