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WHAT:  Digging Deeper XLIX: Follow the money
WHO:  Led by Roger Erickson
WHEN:  Monday, June 2 & 9, 2008 -- 7:00 p.m.-8:30 p.m.
WHERE:  Mandolin Café, 3923 South 12th St., Tacoma, WA 98405

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United for Peace
of Pierce County
Study Circle:
June 2 & 9, 2008
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http://www.ufppc.org
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DIGGING DEEPER XLIX: FOLLOW THE MONEY

Digging Deeper XLIX will examine two well-known books by investigative reporter extraordinaire David Cay Johnston. Perfectly Legal examines taxes in the U.S., and won the Book of the Year award from Investigative Reporters & Editors. Free Lunch, published last year, describes the variety of means used by the wealthy to "enrich themselves at government expense and stick you with the bill," as the book's subtitle puts it. Johnston's achievements have led one law professor to call him "the de facto chief tax enforcement officer of the United States."

David Cay Johnston won a Pulitzer Prize in 2001 for Beat Reporting; the award cited "his penetrating and enterprising reporting that exposed loopholes and inequities in the U.S. tax code, which was instrumental in bringing about reforms." Johnston began his journalistic career at 19 at the San Jose Mercury News, then studied economics at the Univ. of Chicago on a fellowship. In addition to his 13-year stint at the New York Times specializing in taxation, Johnston has been an investigative reporter for the Detroit Free Press, the Los Angeles Times (his investigation of the L.A.P.D. is the stuff of legend), and the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Roger Erickson will lead the discussion.

—David Cay Johnston, Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill) (Porfolio, December 2007). -- “Johnston, a New York Times investigative reporter, has spent his 40-year career exposing collusion between government officials and private sector entities as they enrich the rich and ignore consequences for middle-class laborers and the poor. In Perfectly Legal, he focused on hidden inequities in the tax system. This volume is a broader examination of collusion and unfairness, ranging from subsidies for professional sports stadiums to secret payouts to multinational corporate chief executives. At the base of Johnston's journalistic indictment are the highly paid lobbyists working Congress, state legislatures, county commissions, city councils, and government regulatory agencies. Johnston also cites the culpability of George W. Bush in his roles as professional baseball team owner, Texas governor, and U.S. president, and targets well-known tycoons such as Donald Trump, Warren Buffett, and George Steinbrenner as well as lesser-recognized beneficiaries who own golf courses and insurance companies and energy consortiums. Heroes appear occasionally, such as Remy Welling, an Internal Revenue Service investigator who blew the whistle on improper tax breaks for the wealthy and lost her job. Johnston writes compellingly to show how government-private sector collusion affects the middle class and the poor.” —Publishers Weekly.

—David Cay Johnston, Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich — and Cheat Everybody Else (Portfolio, 2003; paperback, 2005). -- "Since he began writing about taxes for the New York Times in 1995, Johnston's investigative reporting has earned two Pulitzers. The journalistic legwork informs every page of this expos‚ of the ways in which, he says, America's taxation system is stacked in favor of the wealthy. Johnston evades the imposing abstractness of the tax code by keeping the story focused on individuals, from working-class parents facing audits to Internal Revenue Service officials desperate for the resources to revamp their procedures. Chapters addressing the inability of the IRS to go after the worst tax cheats, thanks in part to opposition from grandstanding members of Congress, are particularly effective in putting a spotlight on the problem, but there's plenty of space given to revealing how canny tax attorneys come up with legal (and barely legal) ways to get around the system. And for those who can afford it, he reports, there's always a new dodge available once the law has caught up to the latest tricks. At some points, dealing with numbers becomes unavoidable, but even here Johnston displays a knack for breaking the story down into easily grasped components. Though the tax cuts engineered by Presidents Reagan and George W. Bush receive most of the criticism, Democrats come in for their fair share of opprobrium. Genuine reform, he suggests, will require serious and sustained attention from the public, not just reflexive griping. His book is a thoughtful overview for any citizens willing to educate themselves on the issue." —Publishers Weekly.

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Since July 2004, United for Peace of Pierce County has been conducting “Digging Deeper,” a Monday-evening book discussion group, often in the form of a study circle. Topics have included peak oil, climate change, the corporation, torture, Iran, U.S.-Iran relations, the writings of Robert Baer, Islam, American immigration policy, Barack Obama and the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., Saul Alinsky’s life and writings, war and human nature, parallels between the U.S. and ancient Rome, the sustainability revolution, and the debt crisis, as well as abiding themes of war, peace, politics, and social change. Occasionally, the group has spent several weeks reading longer works, like Daniel Yergin’s The Prize or Robert Fisk’s The Great War for Civilisation.

DIGGING DEEPER meets every Monday from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Mandolin Café, 3923 S. 12th St., Tacoma, WA.

Participation is free. Some copies of the books are available for purchase or loan. Info: contact Roger Erickson (eepolitics@yahoo.com).

****************
United for Peace
of Pierce County
Study Circle:
June 2 & 9, 2008
****************
http://www.ufppc.org
****************