Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and fellow reformers on Capitol Hill have so far met with limited success in their efforts to cut government waste, but they have garnered a lot of attention from popular Web sites and blogs. And that's about to become the basis of their strategy. Coburn has proposed a bill to create an Internet database that would track hundreds of billions of dollars in federal contracts, grants and other payments.
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A Coburn-style spending database wouldn't guarantee greater federal budget restraint. But a big problem today is that politicians can get away with justifying subsidies on the basis of empty rhetoric - "we need to help struggling small businesses." It might change the political dynamics if taxpayers could easily find out what that meant: giving subsidies to liquor stores and sub shops.
Coburn has the right idea. To cut wasteful spending we need citizens to become more involved in monitoring budgeting decisions. A new Internet database can enable taxpayers to do their own research and complain to Congress when they find dubious spending items. It may be that the new tools of the Internet age create the groundswell of support for Washington to reform its wasteful ways.
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