Godheval

Let me start by saying that I respect President Obama’s initiatives towards a more transparent government, especially the efforts to embrace technology in order to expand his outreach.  One of those efforts – Recovery.gov – is a website that is scheduled to detail the parameters of the forthcoming 2009 Economic Stimulus Act, specifically explaining to taxpayers where their dollars are being spent.

Ordinarily, we would have to find the text of the bill at the senate or house website, root through a bunch of legalese, and then attempt to translate it into intelligible language.  So Recovery.gov – assuming it will not be written in such dense language – is a great idea.  The only problem, however, is that the website currently has no information at all – the reason being that the bill has not yet passed.  Personally, I think we should be privy to the provisions of the bill before it passes.  That way we would have the opportunity to write to our senators and representatives and tell them whether or not we agree with those provisions.

Granted, the average citizen probably cannot grasp all the intricacies of American economics, and may not be poised to offer a detailed analysis of the bill, but we can certainly recognize – and oppose where necessary – those things that are obviously extraneous, like the tax cut for toy arrow makers that slipped into the previous stimulus bill.

So while I acknowledge the President’s efforts in reaching out to the public, I fear that Recovery.gov may be too little too late to allow us to truly engage in our democracy – something especially important when it comes to a bill a $900 billion price tag.