I just started reading "Social Mess, The Liberal Legacy" by James Cook. This minibook of essays, only 45 pages, was sent to me by Investment Rarities Incorporated... free! It's full of ugly truths about America's welfare system.
At the link there's a toll-free number if you want to order it as well as another of Cook's books, which I plan to order; it's called "Full Faith and Credit, a Novel About Financial Collapse."