Boehner promises a more transparent House

House Republican leader John Boehner has promised to run things more transparently if Republicans take the House in November:

Mr. Boehner’s promises focus mainly on transparency, a new cause of House Republicans. He said he would require that bills be posted online for at least three days before any votes, Rules Committee meetings would be televised, lawmakers would be prohibited from seeking money to build projects named for themselves and pet projects could not be added to bills at the last minute.

Transparency promises are as non-controversial as American flags and apple pie, but I'm glad he went on record supporting some concrete proposals. Should he become Speaker, let's hope he'll follow through.

What the stimulus bill has done for Nevada

It was one year ago today that the stimulus bill was signed into law.

Those interested in what Nevada has done with the money should check out its entry on Recovery.gov. Here are some of the more interesting items.

Nevada has received 736 awards, most of them in the form of grants. The state has been awarded $1,389,862,617 and has received $413,752,785.

The Clark County School District has been the largest recipient of the funds, followed by NV Energy and the Nevada Department of Transportation.

The Departments of Education, Energy and Transportation have provided most of the funding to Nevada.

A total of 3,149 jobs have been either "created or saved" from October 1st to December 31st of last year.

Demand Question Time

By now I'm sure you've heard about President Obama's meeting with House Republicans in Baltimore a few weeks ago. The meeting was one of the most interesting in recent political memory, a refreshing change of pace from the "Washington as usual" game of sound bites and grandstanding.

In the wake of the meeting, a group of "activists, writers, bloggers, journalists, technologists, philanthropists and politicos" got together with a simple petition:

America could use more of this — an unfettered and public airing of political differences by our elected representatives. So we call on President Barack Obama and House Minority Leader John Boehner to hold these sessions regularly — and allow them to be broadcast and webcast live and without commercial interruption, sponsorship or intermediaries. We also urge the President and the Republican Senate caucus to follow suit. And we ask the President and the House and Senate caucuses of his own party to consider mounting similar direct question-and-answer sessions. We will ask future Presidents and Congresses to do the same.

Demand Question Time is based on the idea that our political discourse is bettered by the free and open debate of ideas. If you agree, you may want to consider signing their pledge.

Gathering over 15,000 signatures, it has gained wide bipartisan support. Both Grover Norquist and the president of MoveOn.org have signed on, along with countless others.

Here is the video from the event. The Q&A portion begins about 19 minutes in.

Transparency promises: easy to make, easy to break

Transparency might be the only political position that every politician supports. From the far-left to the far-right and everybody in between, all politicians seem to agree on the necessity of keeping government open, honest and accountable.

Why, then, is this commitment so hard to follow through on?

President Barack Obama, state legislators, Gov. Jim Gibbons and his campaign opponents — Democrats and Republicans — all have promised to swing wide the shutters so the public can see how their tax dollars are haggled over and the future of the state and nation are shaped.

Then reality, or maybe just expediency, hits and the promises seldom translate into something the public can see.

I think the reason for this is that politicians simply don't see transparency as important to the political process. They feel that as long as the sausage gets made, how it was prepared matters little.

Well, it does matter. Involving citizens throughout the process results in much better decision-making by our elected officials. This “we know best” attitude is disrespectful at best and destructive at worst.

With election season gearing up again, rest assured you'll be hearing more and more candidates pledge support for governmental transparency. But rather than simply taking their word for it, we must challenge them to explain how exactly they’ll implement transparency. Only through sustained pressure will politicians have any reason to support transparency after their election.