Transparency Comes To Government

The Internets are a beautiful thing. Those sequences of 1's and 0's are bringing a tremendous amount of information to the fingertips of millions. Of course, when it comes to government programs, it takes someone willing to put that information up there to see. George Bush's Presidency was one of the most shut-down operations in recent memory but now we are in the age of Obama and things are beginning to change.....and they have been changing, with the interactivity of the campaign site, that morphed into the transition site and now Whitehouse.gov. And with the signing of the Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act, we have a new site, Recovery.gov:

Welcome to Recovery.gov

Recovery.gov is a website that lets you, the taxpayer, figure out where the money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is going. There are going to be a few different ways to search for information. The money is being distributed by Federal agencies, and soon you'll be able to see where it's going -- to which states, to which congressional districts, even to which Federal contractors. As soon as we are able to, we'll display that information visually in maps, charts, and graphics. Kinda like this one:

And there is so much more at the site. Tell your story, what is or isn't working, read the bill, it's all right there. Where there was once secrecy at 1600 Pennsylvania, there is now openness and a desire to communicate with the American people. Being a deciderer is more than going with your gut, it is about governing the people, not dictating to them.