Common cents

After twelve years in Congress, with his political stock rising in Washington and still wildly popular in his home district in Minnesota, Representative Timothy Penny did the unthinkable: he decided not to seek reelection. He was fed up with a Congress whose lawmakers spend more than the country can afford, allow serious problems to fester, and abandon policies they know are right merely because pollsters tell them they're unpopular. Having worked tirelessly for a dozen years to reform profligate government spending from the inside, Penny decided to leave and to pursue change from the outside. In Common Cents, Timothy Penny tells us just how badly damaged the institution of Congress is - and what we, as voters, must do to repair it. It is a candid account that could only have been written by a congressman who has been behind the closed doors, taken part in the daily battles, and seen how totally Congress is held in the thrall of partisanship, special interests, polls and careerism. Penny explains how powerful members of Congress have the power to stop any bill - no matter how popular - from becoming law. He reveals, from personal experience, how special interest groups successfully