Reason 3 to Vote Obama: Transparency!

I started my 18 reasons to vote for Obama campaign because I feel that it is important to vote FOR a candidate rather than AGAINST someone. Hence the 18 reasons to vote FOR Obama instead of 18 reasons to reject McCain.

As part of this blogging campaign that I hope you’ll join, I’m poring over information from his issues page at http://www.barackobama.com/issues/. I hope you’ll spend some time there. Be sure to look at the PDF files in addition to the pages.

This week’s reason to Vote Obama is because he promotes transparent government. Senator Obama calls it ethics, but his proposals are based on shining light on lobbyist and governmental activities:

Centralize Ethics and Lobbying Information for Voters: Obama will create a centralized Internet database of lobbying reports, ethics records, and campaign finance filings in a searchable, sortable and downloadable format.

Create a Public “Contracts and Influence” Database: As president, Obama will create a “contracts and influence” database that will disclose how much federal contractors spend on lobbying, and what contracts they are getting and how well they complete them. [Daniel's note - A similar system called Open Book already operates on the state level in Illinois.]

End Abuse of No-Bid Contracts: Barack Obama will end abuse of no-bid contracts by requiring that nearly all contract orders over $25,000 be competitively awarded.

Sunlight Before Signing: Too often bills are rushed through Congress and to the president before the public has the opportunity to review them. As president, Obama will not sign any non-emergency bill without giving the American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House website for five days.

Conduct Regulatory Agency Business in Public: Obama will require his appointees who lead the executive branch departments and rulemaking agencies to conduct the significant business of the agency in public, so that any citizen can see in person or watch on the Internet these debates.

Release Presidential Records: Obama will nullify the Bush attempts to make the timely release of presidential records more difficult.

More of Senator Obama’s proposals on ethics/transparency can be found at http://www.barackobama.com/issues/ethics/.

I believe that President Obama would implement all the above proposals that are in his power to implement because he is the ONE candidate running for President that his signed the Oath of Presidential Transparency suggested by the Reason Foundation.

For too long, President’s of both parties and Congress have operated behind our backs, often with the help of unelected lobbyists. Let’s change course. Vote Obama in November.