A Little Transparency for Obama's Stimulus Legislation

The not yet in office Obama administration plans to create a Google-like search function to show every program funded by the pending, yet-to-be-drafted multibillion dollar stimulus package, "whether it comes in under or over-budget, whether it is meeting its intended purpose, and how many jobs it is creating" according to ABC News. This appears to be in response to criticism of how the financial industry bailout legislation was shoved through Congress with little time for public review and comment.

Sam Taylor on Washington Policy Center's Blog writes "this is a fantastic idea and should be expanded to the full federal budget. In fact, it's not a bad idea for the state budget[s] either." See Washington State's searchable budget website which went live on Dec. 3, 2008.