THE CAMPUS RAPE FRENZY explores nearly four dozen
case studies since 2011 in which innocent or almost
certainly innocent students have been branded as sex
criminals by their colleges. Having studied tens of
thousands of pages of documents never released to
the public, along with information gleaned from
university handbooks, statistical studies, and
confidential “training” materials created for
colleges and universities nationwide, Taylor and
Johnson unravel the story of how America’s colleges
suddenly began to treat all accusers as “survivors”
while destroying the lives of the accused without
any semblance of a fair process. Taylor and Johnson
contend that destroying the civil liberties of the
accused will do nothing to solve the problem of
campus sexual assault. The forgotten victims of the
campus rape panic are the students who, having been
wrongfully accused, are then expelled from college
as rapists and deprived of a future life and career.
THE CAMPUS RAPE FRENZY calls for an end to this
national rush to judgment and a rededication to
seeking the truth and justice based on evidence and
facts—not pre-determined, politically expedient
conclusions.
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David Schoenbrod is
a renowned policy expert and author of the new book,
DC Confidential. He is Trustee Professor of Law at
New York Law School. Schoenbrod was a leader of the
Natural Resources Defense Council, heading campaigns
to get the lead out of gasoline, protect the
environment in Puerto Rico, and protect New Yorkers
from automotive air pollution.
Schoenbrod is a frequent media guest who has
appeared on major radio and television programs
nationwide. He has frequently contributed to the
editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal, the New
York Times, and other newspapers and periodicals.
His books include Power without Responsibility,
Democracy by Decree, Saving Our Environment from
Washington, and Breaking the Logjam. He has a
graduate degree in economics from Oxford (which he
attended as a Marshall Scholar) and a law degree
from Yale. |
DC
Confidential
Inside the Five Tricks of Washington
By David Schoenbrod
www.DC-Confidential.org
Product Details
Washington, DC—Americans think they know why our
government in Washington is broken, but they really
don’t. They believe it’s broken because politicians
curry favor with special interests and activists of
the Left or the Right. There’s something to that and
it helps explain why these politicians can’t find
common ground, but it misses the root cause. In the
1960s, elected officials in Congress and the White
House figured out a new system for enacting laws and
spending programs—one that lets them take the credit
for promising good news while avoiding the blame for
producing bad results. With five key tricks,
politicians of both parties now avoid accounting to
the people for what the government actually does to
us. The result is a vicious cycle of grand promises
and budget gimmicks by elected officials, failed
policies, blame-shifting by politicians, and
spiraling distrust of a government too dysfunctional
and unaccountable to solve major problems. No wonder
so many voted to “drain the swamp.”
In DC CONFIDENTIAL: Inside the Five Tricks of
Washington (Encounter Books, March 7, 2017),
renowned policy expert David Schoenbrod exposes how
members of Congress and presidents adopted new ways
to structure laws and spending programs to protect
their own political fortunes at the expense of the
national interest. When President Roosevelt and
Congress established Social Security in 1935, they
took responsibility for the cost of old-age pensions
by imposing taxes sufficient to pay the promised
benefits in the future. In contrast, when President
Johnson and Congress established Medicare in 1965,
they took credit for the popular health coverage
while leaving it to their successors to increase
taxes to pay for the program. As the national debt
surges to $20 trillion, Americans are beginning to
understand that budget gimmicks and reckless
spending with no means of paying for it are
unsustainable. While most people understand that
these politicians seem to pull rabbits out of hats,
hardly anyone sees the sleight of hand by which they
get away with their tricks. Otherwise, their tricks
wouldn’t work. DC CONFIDENTIAL uncovers the sleights
of hand. Once they are brought to light, we can stop
the tricks, fix our broken government, and make
Washington work for us once again.
DC CONFIDENTIAL argues that we must change the
ground rules of government so that elected officials
once again must shoulder responsibility for results.
David Schoenbrod also offers a practical action plan
for reform that puts the people back in charge. DC
CONFIDENTIAL proposes a legislative solution—the
Honest Deal Act—which would finally change the
incentives and fundamentally reform government
procedures that make Washington unable to function
in the interest of citizens.
The Five Tricks:
1) The Money Trick: lets current members of Congress
get credit for gratifying the public’s demands for
tax cuts, benefit increases, and other spending
increases, while shifting the blame for the
inevitable tax increases and benefit cuts to their
successors in office when the long-term fiscal
consequences of these actions will require painful
adjustments. As a result, Congress has set a course
that, unless soon changed, will require draconian
tax increases and spending cuts affecting the entire
population.
2) The Debt Guarantee Trick: lets current members of
Congress get support from the too-big-to-fail banks
and other businesses whose profits it increases by
guaranteeing their debts, while shifting the blame
for the eventual bailouts to their successors in
office when the debt guarantees produce fiscal
crises. As a result, Congress grants debt guarantees
in a way that encourages these businesses to run
risks that will lead to fiscal crises, lost
retirement savings, unemployment, and foreclosures.
3) The Federal Mandate Trick: lets members of
Congress get credit for the benefits they require
the state and local government to deliver, while
shifting the blame for the burdens required to
deliver those benefits to state and local officials.
As a result, Congress mandates benefits without
considering whether they are worth the burdens they
impose.
4) The Regulation Trick: lets members of Congress
get credit for granting seemingly rock-solid rights
to regulatory protection, while shifting the blame
to federal agencies for the burdens required to
vindicate those rights and the failures to vindicate
them. As a result, Congress designs regulatory
statutes to maximize credit for its members rather
than to provide us with effective, efficient
regulatory protection.
5) The War Trick: lets members of Congress get
credit for having a statute that requires them to
take responsibility for going to war, while
colluding with the president to evade the
responsibility for wars that might later prove
controversial. As a result, members of Congress can
march in the parade if the war ends up proving
popular, but put the entire blame on the president
if it does not.
To arrange an interview with DC Confidential author
David Schoenbrod, please contact Stephen Manfredi at
202.222.8028 or
smanfredi@manfredistrategygroup.com . |