Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Government Transparency

Wouldn't it be cool if there was a website database that you could search, for free, to find out how the Federal government is spending our tax dollars. For example, you could type in "Halliburton" and instantly find out how much government money is going to Halliburton.

Well a bill proposing such a database has been introduced into the Senate by Senators Coburn and Obama. The bill will not be voted on however, because some Senator has placed a "secret hold" on the bill. TPM is trying to find out who the Senator is. So far 79 Senators have said "It's not me." More about secret holds here.

So one of these Senators;

Bond, Christopher S.- (R - MO)
Byrd, Robert C.- (D - WV)
Carper, Thomas R.- (D - DE)*
Chambliss, Saxby- (R - GA)*
Crapo, Mike- (R - ID)
Gregg, Judd- (R - NH)
Hatch, Orrin G.- (R - UT)
Reid, Harry- (D - NV)*
Rockefeller, John D., IV- (D - WV)
Sarbanes, Paul S.- (D - MD)
Stevens, Ted- (R - AK)

doesn't want us to have a freely accessible database that tells us how the government spends our taxes. My guess is Ted Stevens.

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