Did you know that last year Congress passed the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (FFAT Act) of 2006? Once (if ever) this legislation is implemented there will be the creation of a free, searchable website that will list every recipient of every federal award. Did you know that this legislation was co-sponsored by Senator Obama and that he and two other republican presidential candidates are the only presidential hopefuls to sign an oath of presidential transparency? I’m in no way putting my word in for Obama (I personally have not decided yet) but it is interesting to think about the implications of this oath. From bad experience with the present administration, more presidential transparency can’t hurt. But the FFAT Act on the other hand seems positive in theory but will take an estimated $15 million to set-up the actual website. Playing the devil’s advocate, is there such a thing as too much information availability? Or is there a price we should set the cost at? A price we as a society are willing to pay (such as is in tax dollars) that could otherwise go towards say healthcare or reducing our deficit? It’s something worth thinking about.

A few days ago the President announced his intention to veto legislation which would expand health insurance coverage for children. By increasing federal funding for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), this bill—hailed before as “popular” and “bipartisan”—would cover an additional 4 million children who are currently uninsured.

Today we learned that, inexplicably, over 150 Republicans in the House of Representatives went on the record against protecting the health of poor kids. Poor American kids. more »