Rahm Emanuel, President-elect Barack Obama’s designed chief of staff, has promised White House support for creation of “a Google-like search function to show every program funded by the [$775 billion economic] stimulus package, whether it comes in under or over-budget, whether it is meeting its intended purpose, and how many jobs it is creating,” according to ABC News.
Virtually all government spending – not just economic stimulus spending – should be quickly accessible via a Google-like online search, which is the basic idea behind USASpending,gov., the Google-like searchable database created by the 2006 law popularly known as “Coburn-Obama.”
Creating such a database of economic stimulus spending is a great idea to advance transparency and accountability in government spending, but only if somebody other than the Obama administration determines if programs are meeting their intended purpose and how many jobs are being created. Otherwise, it will just be another vehicle for government spinmiesters to tell us what a great job they are doing for America.
