Editorial: Playing with your money
Austin American Statesman
September 6, 2006
Congress returned Tuesday for a few weeks of meetings before the Nov. 7 election, and plenty of issues might go unresolved — immigration reform, to name one — because of deep divisions over what should be done. What's maddening for ordinary Americans, however, is when Congress fails to act even when there's widespread, bipartisan agreement about what to do.
It would cost the federal government about $15 million over five years to create a database that would allow anyone with access to a computer and the Internet to find out who gets $2.3 trillion — yes, trillion — in grants, contracts, insurance and other federal assistance and what they spend it on. If you received federal taxpayers' money, the public would get to know how much and what you spent it on.
Such a database is Open Government 101, and a proposal to create it drew support from the left and the right, as well as the broad middle. The co-authors of the bill are U.S. Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Barack Obama, D-Ill. — one of the odder political pairings you're ever likely to see. A co-sponsor is Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.
There was no apparent opposition to the proposal, which Coburn described as a "Google for government spending," and the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee unanimously recommended for approval on July 27.
Yet, the bill stalled because some senator or senators, as allowed by Senate rules, anonymously put a hold on it. Bloggers went to work and finally flushed out Sen. Ted Stevens, an Alaska Republican and chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. Shortly thereafter, Sen. Robert Byrd, a D-W.Va., acknowledged he had also put a hold on the bill, though he has since withdrawn it.
Stevens' hold remains in place because, a spokesman has told reporters, he has concerns about the costs of the database. What baloney — this is the same Stevens who tried to get $223 million in federal tax dollars for construction of the "bridge to nowhere," to connect the small Alaskan port town of Ketchikan, which has 8,900 people, to a nearby island with about 50 people.
Both Stevens and Byrd are champion producers of government pork for their states. Their real concern appears to be the danger of all those bloggers finding and then holding up for public ridicule and anger questionable or wasteful spending by the billions of dollars.
There's just no good excuse here for either senator. They have used an obscure Senate rule to block legislation that would clearly benefit the public and has widespread support, and they've done so for no reason of principle. Congress rates even lower in most national polls than does President Bush, and Stevens and Byrd illustrate why.
Stevens should let go of his hold and let the database bill go forward.
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
|
$9,769,491,024,510.00
|
$31,868.04 Per Citizen |
|
