Thank you.  Someone agrees with me. President-Elect Obama is the first man to hold our highest office on that very premise.  I and many others keep him and his family in our prayers.  I can only pray that he is true to his word.

Good Morning,

Honestly and Transparency beings at the TOP.

That includes Senate  members/Congress members and all Federal Agencies.

I believe President -Elect Obama will lead in this matter.

Now if the so called professional Senate and Congress members will just be honest in their jobs. Their actions speak louder than words and all of the American people are looking at them for honesty.

Thank you
peacock

I agree.  Also, since Honesty and Transparency begin at the top, maybe Corporate America will follow suit and become Honest and Transparent as well instead of being able to hide things from the public that affect the public until it is too late.

A government that is honest with the people would be a welcome change. However, does anyone honestly believe transparency will fuel a more efficient and effective government?  What rights do new methods of transparency actually give us - the tax paying citizens?

We have known for years that government has been irresponsible and is corrupt on many levels. They are experts at disguising and hiding the small print in legislation that benefit big business and special interests at the expense of the common citizen and our environment. In many ways, they break the laws that are already in place (or change the law to protect themselves or special interests) on a regular basis. There doesn't seem to be a thing we can do about it other than get louder and angrier. What will that accomplish? Maybe if the entire country revolted and refused to pay any more taxes, they would listen. I am not advocating a tax revolt, but our government is so big and so out of control, I just don’t see it correcting itself under it's present structure.

As it is now, when we vote our representatives into office, they are then free to do whatever they want under the guise that they know best. They didn't listen to the majority of us who were against corporate bailouts. They didn't listen to us when we asked for single payer health care years ago and they aren’t listening to us now. They aren’t acting on what the credit card industry is doing. They aren’t relieving the mortgage crisis, or inflation, or the tax burden. The list goes on and on but, the bottom line is THEY RARELY PUT ANY VALUE IN WHAT WE HAVE TO SAY OR HOW THEIR ACTIONS EFFECT US FROM THE BOTTOM UP.

What guarantees do we have that they will listen to us or act on what we the people want or need after January 20th? Obama is not the only one who has to be behind the people. It takes cooperation at every level of government to effect long-term sustainable policies that benefit us as well as future generations.

Other than not voting them in the next time, I just don't see how knowing more details about ways the government is spending OUR money allows us to hold them accountable. Knowing the truth does not equal justice.

A real solution to reducing government's wasteful spending and bureaucratic corruption would be some kind of public vote on every policy, legislation, and spending program the government is involved in. This would include who gets awarded government contracts and at what price.