President Bush will soon sign the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act co-sponsored by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-OK, and Sen. Barack Obama, D-IL to establish a google-like Internet database of most federal spending. Passage of this measure marks two vitally important milestones in the development of American democracy and the Internet media age.
First, for most of our history, the vast majority of Americans lacked the time or resources to keep track of how the federal government was spending our tax dollars. Even with the coming of the spreadsheet programs, personal computers and the Internet’s infancy in the early 90s, it was all but impossible for any but the most determined and technically savvy citizen to see where the tax dollars were going. Among the most visible contemporary results of that situation are congressional earmarks in which anonymous Members of Congress are able to insert spending projects that can enrich campaign donors, family members, favored special interests or the Member himself. Coburn has called earmarks “the gateway drug to spending addiction.” Progress is being made on that front, too.
Now with Coburn-Obama, every citizen with access to the Internet will be within a few mouse clicks of knowing where their tax dollars are going and who is benefitting from them. Such access moves our democracy beyond Government 1.0 web sites that mainly just provide passive information and encourages more active and informed citizenry. Call it the dawn of Government 2.0. It is especially fitting that a database of federal spending — the blood flow of governance — marks the opening of the new era.
Second, Coburn-Obama is notable for the rapidity with which it was passed — introduced in early April — and especially for the manner in which new Internet-based media of the Blogosphere generated a groundswell of public support and in the process overcame the blatant misuse of Senate rules by two Old Bull senators just when it looked as if they had successfully bottled up the measure in legislative purgatory.
The experts will do well to study the campaign for Coburn-Obama closely for several reasons, not the least of which are that from the beginning it included people and groups from across the political spectrum and the fact that the Internet gave them unprecedented power to assess the situation at any given moment, distribute key information throughout the ranks of supporters and media and generate highly focused action wherever it was most needed. Old media was mostly on the sidelines throughout. Coburn-Obama is the first bill advanced by an “Army of Davids” acting with “the Wisdom of Crowds.” (go ahead, google those phrases, then buy both books).
The Founders would certainly be pleased by Coburn-Obama. Patrick Henry warned that “the liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be secure so long as the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them.” Now, Henry might well rephrase his saying to: “The liberties of a people are never more secure than when their rulers’ transactions are open for all to see.”
