Red Ink: Inside the High-Stakes Politics of the Federal Budget [Paperback]

The Pulitzer-Prize-winning reporter, columnist, and bestselling author ofIn Fed We Trust, dissects the federal budget in thisNew York Timesbestseller.

In a sweeping narrative about the people and the politics behind the budget--a topic that is fiercely debated today in the halls of Congress and the media, and yet is often misunderstood by the American public--Wessel looks at the 2011 fiscal year (which ended September 30) to see where all the money was actually spent, and why the budget process has grown wildly out of control. Through the eyes of key people, including Jacob Lew, White House director of the Office of Management and Budget; Douglas Elmendorf, director of the Congressional Budget Office; Blackstone founder and former Commerce Secretary Pete Peterson; and more, Wessel gives readers an inside look at the making of our unsustainable budget.“An excellent book”–Fareed Zakaria

“Should be a first port of call for American voters sadly misinformed about their federal budget…Wessel’s aim is to explain for a general audience the basics of the budget – where the money comes from and goes to – and to make the explanation interesting. He succeeds.”–Financial Times

“Wessel…has an insider’s grasp of the players, issues and argot surrounding the budget. Yet he writes with an outsider’s eye, distilling his tale of the fiscal monster into about 150 pages of simple prose and a smattering of charts.”–Businessweek

“This is the most useful book on government spending since the publication of the classic work,The Debt and Deficitby Robert Heilbroner and Peter Bernstein. In the service of economic literacy, I wish that a few members of the House and the Senate would read the entire book aloud on the floor of the respective chambers (but don't hold your breath).”–HufflĂ2