Posted on 09/26/2006 9:41:13 PM PDT by jdm
President Bush yesterday signed legislation creating a Web-based searchable database of federal government spending, calling it a first step in making the government more accountable to taxpayers.
The database, championed by bloggers, taxpayer groups and editorial writers nationwide, will allow people to search records for hundreds of billions of dollars worth of federal contracts and grants -- or, as Mr. Bush said, "to Google their tax dollars." "We spend a lot of time and a lot of effort collecting your money, and we should show the same amount of effort in reporting how we spend it," the president said during a signing ceremony attended by lawmakers, congressional staff, columnists and bloggers.
Written by Sens. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma Republican, and Barack Obama, Illinois Democrat, the legislation creates a database available to the public through a Web site. It will list every entity receiving federal funds, along with information about the amount and purpose of the spending.
The federal government issues more than $400 billion in grants and $300 billion in contracts each year to businesses, associations and state and local governments.
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
That is just too cool.
I like the idea.
Congress: Exposed.
Record ID Amount Reason Spent by --------- ----------- ------------------ --------------- 000000001 Classified This tax web site G. Bush 000000002 10,000,000 Black Ops Classified 000000003 372,000,000 Black Ops Classified 000000004 47,000,000 Pet Project Classified 000000005 168,000,000 Pork Project Classified 000000006 791,000,000 Black Ops Classified 000000007 40,000 Jan '06 Liquor Tab T. Kennedy
...etc - you get the idea... I am sure people more informed than I could come up with a better set of "joke" items, but I just can't believe that spend-happy politicians are going to "all in" for the accountability this type of thing could bring... I hope it does work. My only question now is - will it be Microsoft SQL, or Oracle?
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