News Release

November 9, 2005

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Downsizing the Federal Government
A Blueprint for Federal Budget Reform

The federal government is running huge budget deficits, spending too much, and heading toward a financial crisis. Federal spending has soared under President George W. Bush, and the costs of programs for the elderly are set to balloon in coming years. Hurricane Katrina has made the federal budget situation even more desperate.

In a new book, Downsizing the Federal Government, Cato Institute budget expert Chris Edwards provides policymakers with solutions to the growing federal budget mess. Edwards identifies more than 100 federal programs that should be terminated, transferred to the states, or privatized in order to balance the budget and save hundreds of billions of dollars.

Edwards proposes a balanced reform package of cuts to entitlements, domestic programs, and excess defense spending. He argues that these cuts would not only eliminate the deficit, but also strengthen the economy, enlarge personal freedom, and leave a positive fiscal legacy for the next generation.

Downsizing the Federal Government discusses the systematic causes of wasteful spending, and it overflows with examples of federal programs that are obsolete and mismanaged. The book examines the budget process and shows how policymakers act contrary to the interests of average Americans by favoring special interests.

The book is already winning praise from experts from across the political spectrum. It has received favorable reviews by Ronald Reagan's budget chief James Miller, Nobel Prize economist James Buchanan, Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN), and Isabel Sawhill, a top budget expert at the Brookings Institution.

About the Author

Chris Edwards is director of tax policy studies at the Cato Institute. Before coming to Cato, he was a senior economist on the Joint Economic Committee of Congress. Prior to that he focused on fiscal policy issues at PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Tax Foundation. Edwards has published op-eds in the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journa,l the Los Angeles Times, and other leading newspapers. He holds a masters degree in economics from George Mason University in Virginia.

About the Book

Downsizing the Federal Government
by Chris Edwards
$12.95 paper; 232 pages
ISBN: 1-930865-82-1
Publication date: November 9, 2005
Further details are available at www.downsizinggovernment.com.