Politics

Highlighting Deficit Spending

By Sunlight Foundation & Participatory Politics Foundation

Every politician loves an easy way to show their support for “transparency” and “fiscal responsibility.” The Hill:

In a rare 100-0 roll call vote, the Senate adopted an amendment offered by Sen. Tom Coburn [R, OK] that would create a running tally on the secretary of the Senate’s website of any new mandatory spending that isn?t paid for through offsetting spending cuts or tax increases.

Actually, the amendment (text)requires the Senate to post more than just new un-offset spending at www.senate.gov. It also calls for “the total amount of net spending authorized in legislation passed by the Senate, as scored by CBO” and “the number of new government programs created in legislation passed by the Senate” to be posted. They would also have to post which of these items have become law.

Who’s going to submit a secondary amendment to add a Twitter feed to this?

Full post as published by Open Congress on March 09, 2010 (boomark / email).