Posted on 02/23/2009 3:50:51 PM PST by arkadyka
Based on a campaign promise by Obama his administration is now utilizing technology to provide bleeding edge transparency to government in ways unseen before. Even before the stimulus bill found support in Congress, one of the very first provisions in the bill spoke about Recovery.gov as a means to provide transparency to the American public. Aim here is to let the people know where exactly our hard earned money is going and even give us a chance to participate, or in this case write about emotional stories of how someone else's money changed our lives.
Given that a bill of this size passed through Congress in truly record speed, one would expect the website to be fully functioning and full of lip smacking goodness. Instead, the user is greeted with a bar chart that breaks down the money distribution in several sections. I was intrigued by the staggering figure of 288B for 'tax relief' considering $400 checks to those making less than 75k and an AMT patch cannot possibly amount to this kind of cash, so I clicked to learn more.
We are greeted with a colorful display:
The first realization is that 81 Billion is going to 'Protecting the Vulnerable'. No description or details of what this means, but it is a rather whopping number considering it certainly does not apply to me or anyone I know. I actually pay my mortgage every month so I am out....
The website recovery.gov, as of last week, claimed to be the main oversight for the ‘stimulus’ spending. It encouraged readers to view the allotments and complain, and the complaint would be reviewed by a ‘board’. Pretty vague as one would expect.
I can name 5 other blogs that have more information about the stimulus as of now.
Easily. I was paraphrasing the FAQ’s in the site. I thought a few people might like to know where the semi-’official’ complaints are claimed to be handled.
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