63. Glenn Beck's Common Sense: The Case Against an Out-of-Control Government, Inspired by Thomas Paine - Glenn Beck

The premise of this book is that Americans in 1776 were woken up by Common Sense (by Thomas Paine) and realized that "an oppressive English government was out of step with the Laws of Nature." Beck argues that "our government is once again out of step with the Laws of Nature. The government by, of, and for the people has been turned on its head."
Given Beck's reputation, I was surprised that he actually seems to take shots at both sides in this book. It wasn't as divisive (Republican v. Democrat) as I thought it'd be. He does make some great points and is a good and entertaining writer.
In one chapter, he explains what a Ponzi scheme is and then says that "Social Security is a great example of a 'legal Ponzi scheme.' Every time you're paid for work, the government takes a portion of your hard-earned dollars to 'invest' in the Social Security Trust Fund, where it sits, collecting interest, until you retire and are eligible to start receiving your Social Security checks. At least, that's the way most of us think that it works. The truth is that your money isn't set aside until you retire. In the meantime it's spent by the government and an IOU is put in the trust fund in its place."

Another good point about the overly-complicated tax code: "If you're a friend to those in power and fail to pay your taxes, it's considered a simple oversight and you move on to become secretary of the treasury. But if you're considered hostile to those in power, then the same mistake will be used to destroy your reputation ... Do you think it's purely a coincidence that Martin Luther King, Jr., was targeted as a tax cheat or that both Jesse Owens and Joe Louis were investigated for tax-code violations after they spoke out against the government?"

I did start to roll my eyes, however, when he used in support of his argument that the government will always say that anything is for the "common good" - like when it put Japanese Americans in internment camps during World War II "for the common good." A little extreme - I don't think a health care bill is quite on the same level as interning American citizens based on their ethnicity.

I was disappointed when I realized that only part 1 of this book (i.e. the first hundred or so pages) is actually from Beck - part 2 is the original "Common Sense" by Thomas Paine! Only someone with name recognition could sell half a book like this and have it do so well.