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jewal

User Profile Image jewal
Member since : May-29-2009 (Verified)
0 Ideas, 4 Comments, 29 Votes

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jewal 9 months ago
I agree, and am sorry, that the ARRA could not be found on the president's web site. I found it at CBO and a few other sites (long since forgotten) read it, downloaded it, and still have it. This was before the vote and while all the angst was piling up in the media and in the House of reps. I even saw the revised bill. It all took some time and effort to be sure.

It would be helpful, and I agree with you, to have one site to go to requesting feedback from citizens. I would also like each bill to address only one issue and/or if that is not possible, then each different item should have authors noted, who benefits, any conflict of interest, ie campaign contributors, as a start. If we want transparency, then we should know pertinent details on just who is benefited directly and indirectly and why a particular bill is being promoted.

I have visited a number of Federal departments online and so far each of them has an email service that I signed up for and I am very happy at the results. Some of the Treasury stuff is too technical but otherwise informational.
jewal 9 months ago
I like the concept but then would we have oversight teams to monitor the oversight teams? You know, power corrupts. Maybe my thinking is too small to see how this would work in reality. Wish we could, though.
jewal 9 months ago
Ditto, good idea. The congress couldn't say they didn't have time to read the bill.
jewal 9 months ago
Agree with srana. Will a 9th grader comment; will the political machine be activated and skew the results just as happened here with twitter? Can you not find bills now? The CBO reviews these bills and they are posted on that site. Srana has also noted a site. The process has many access points for those who are interested.

My question is what are we paying our congress men and women to do? Probably mostly sef-promotion, I know. But they, the GOP partisians, complained they didn't read the ARRA bill. Excuse me, I read the ARRA bill before it was passed, taking notes and in general understanding where the money was going especially researching the remarks made about "pork". Do they not have staff, resources, access? The final bill had late changes, but just how few pages do they read a day? Again, what do we pay these people for?

For transparancy, I would like to see the authors of each segment of the bill, including "pork", any conflict of interest such as campaign contributions from interested parties. I would like to see who is supporting this bill, congressmen and special interest both, and who it will benefit. If we want transparency, then let in the real sunshine, the political sunshine.