Breakdown - by Jeff Bingaman (Hardcover)

About the Book

em>Breakdown: Lessons for a Congress in Crisis traces the development of congressional dysfunction over more than three decades and provides eight case studies that examine how the crisis affects our government's ability to meet major policy challenges.

Book Synopsis

em>Breakdown: Lessons for a Congress in Crisis traces the development of congressional dysfunction over more than three decades and provides eight case studies that examine how the crisis affects our government's ability to meet major policy challenges.

Review Quotes

Bingaman distills important government trends from the murk of current events.--Pasatiempo

Every American should read Jeff Bingaman's new book, Breakdown. Like Bingaman's service in the Senate, it is full of common sense and in-depth understanding. Whether it is the issues we must solve to become an ever-more-prosperous country or the reforms we must pass to remain a responsive democracy, Bingaman goes to the heart of the matter. He not only diagnoses the problems but offers solutions and in doing so offers us hope.--Bill Bradley, former United States Senator

In his thirty years in the Senate, Jeff Bingaman earned his reputation as a thoughtful and intelligent lawmaker, a problem solver, and one of the key constructive forces in Congress. Now he has taken his insights from those decades in public service to write a penetrating book about the key policy areas of our time, including the direct challenges to governance and democracy. If you care about America and its future, read this book.--Norman Ornstein, emeritus scholar at the American Enterprise Institute

Insightful, timely.--Albuquerque Journal

Senator Bingaman's book could not have come at a better time, as a polarized America continues to face monumental policy challenges. Few members of Congress have been as effective at bridging the divide as Senator Bingaman, and his lessons of policy successes and failures provide a road map (and some hope!) for effective policy making to solve these challenges.--Michael Rocca, professor of political science at the University of New Mexico

Throughout his career in the Senate, Jeff Bingaman was always someone I and his other colleagues could count on to take a deliberative approach and provide sage counsel to help drive progress on the most pressing issues facing the country. His insightful analysis of the impediments to successful governance and how to overcome them make Breakdown essential reading for anyone entering public service.--Vice President Al Gore

About the Author

Jeff Bingaman served as a US Senator from New Mexico for five terms (1983-2013). A native of Silver City, New Mexico, he attended Harvard College and Stanford Law School. He then joined the US Army Reserve from 1968 to 1974 and was elected as the New Mexico Attorney General from 1979 through 1982. In the Senate he served on the Finance Committee; the Armed Services Committee; the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee; the Joint Economic Committee; and the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, where he served as its chair. Jeff and his wife, Anne, live in Santa Fe, New Mexico.