I don’t think you understand what I’m saying. This is not about tracking what you or I do.
It’s about tracking the flow of money from federal agencies to states and to to each state recipient and each of their vendors.
Consider the Dept of Education. It gives a pile of money to each state. The state divides that up and distributes it to school districts. Today all the government tracks is how much each district is awarded and a very general description of what they say they plan to do with it. They could spend it all on big screen TVs for their homes (which has happened) and we’d never know it.
With the DATA Act we’ll know the exact dollar amount that a district receives and how they spent every penny whether it’s $100,000 on computers or $8.56 at Subway. You’ll be able to search all recipients and drill down to the line item, flagging and even tweeting any case of suspicious or wasteful spending. And this goes for all federal agencies, and all recipients of funds (think gov grants and contracts).
I think the more access we have to examine spending, the less chance there is someone is willing to take a chance at committing fraud. Today it’s too easy because there is NO oversight.
I understand Exactly what you’re saying, and it boils down to the Triumph of Hope over Experience.
US Senators and Congressmen use our Federal Treasury as a personal Piggy Bank to whore for votes and if Any of the Rascals get Caught ripping off not just a few Millions, but $Billlions, the word goes out, and down, and even the mighty Federal Law Enforcement Agencies themselves get a phone call or a personal envoy.
And it goes No Further. File Drawer it and Forget It. You didn’t see it, It didn’t happen.
Senator Blowhard can’t afford to have this looked into, and if you like working here you’ll forget you stumbled into it Agent Mulder.