Barons of the Beltway: Inside the Princely World of Our Washington Elite--and How to Overthrow Them

Our Founding Fathers rejected the notion of royalty and fought against extravagance, pomp, and circumstance. Today in Washington, members of the United States government live like royalty and enjoy lifestyle perks that would make Marie Antoinette envious. This book exposes our government's shocking waste, its corruption, and the serious detachment between our elected officials and reality. It looks at the hidden perks, the freebies, and the ego stroking that define life for a political class that is out of touch and out to lunch.

Our public servants are chauffeured to their Capitol Hill offices even when they live only two blocks away. They enjoy their own taxpayer-subsidized Senate Hair Care Services, travel on their own subway, vacation with their families in exotic locations for free, and exempt themselves and their friends from the laws that they create. Many of them pay family members through their PACs, campaigns, or congressional offices. They divert millions of dollars of federal contracts and earmarks to their children and siblings. And they send their campaign funds straight into their families' pocketbooks.