No budget update means something’s up
The web is aflutter today with speculation about why the Obama administration’s midsummer budget update has not been released. Why would Obama, a self-proclaimed advocate of transparency, fail to inform the American people about what is happening with their tax dollars? Economist Greg Mankiw (whose blog is highly recommended) shows the blatant hypocrisy of this situation in a great post entitled “No news is bad news.”
Indeed, when government fails to post spending information online in easily accessible form, citizens are left to speculation—and rightly so. For Obama, such pessimistic speculation could be harmful to his already slumping approval rating. In the same way, state governments risk political consequences when spending information is not readily available. One should rightly question any policy maker who refuses to make information transparent. The logic is straightforward: if you can’t show it to the taxpayer, then you must have something to hide.
Quite simply, transparency is good for both constituents and policy makers, Democrats and Republicans, state and national leaders. Read more about this important issue on our policy page.
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