The Black Informant | African American Commentary, News and Community Building

Once again, let’s go back in time for a moment.

From the change.gov website under ethics:

“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.”

1/29/09

“But that didn’t happen with the Ledbetter bill. Obama’s had his hands on it for two days, but the first chance Americans got to comment on it on the White House Web site was today, after the president had already signed it into law. We’ve put in calls to the White House and are waiting to hear back for an explanation.

The bill, which was first introduced in the House and Senate three weeks ago, was mentioned in a blog post on the White House Web site on Jan. 25, but it simply pointed out that, hey, here’s a bill coming up, and directed readers to check it out on THOMAS, the government’s legislation-tracking Web site. There wasn’t an opportunity for the public to make comments there either.” (more from ProPublica)

From CATO

“Several times the White House has posted a bill while it remains in Congress, attempting to satisfy the five-day rule. But this doesn’t give the public an opportunity to review the final legislation – especially any last minute amendments. Versions of the children’s health insurance legislation, the omnibus spending bill, and the omnibus public land management bill were linked to from Whitehouse.gov while making their ways through Congress, but not posted in final form.

(The page linking to the omnibus spending bill was not highlighted in the White House blog or anywhere else on Whitehouse.gov I could find. The only evidence I found of when it was posted comes from Web commentary.)”

The chart below is also from CATO~

I read the following today~

Democrats nix putting pre-vote health bill online (AP)

WASHINGTON — Senate Finance Committee Democrats have rejected a GOP amendment that would have required a health overhaul bill to be available online for 72 hours before the committee votes.

Republicans argued that transparency is an Obama administration goal. They also noted that their constituents are demanding that they read bills before voting.

Democrats said it was a delay tactic that could have postponed a vote for weeks.

The Democrats noted that unlike other committees, the Finance Committee works off conceptual language that describes policies — instead of legislative language that ultimately becomes law, and which the GOP amendment would have required.

Democrats accepted an alternate amendment to make conceptual language available online before a vote.

Ruh-Roh! Later in the article.

Despite Obama’s repeated claims that Medicare benefits will not be cut, Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf told senators Tuesday that the elderly in the private Medicare Advantage plans could see reduced benefits under Baucus’ bill.

Obama isn’t the only President who made campaign promises only to break them later on. But just because other Presidents have gone down this road never makes it right. And just as past Presidents got checked by the public on broken campaign promises, current polling data continues to show a growing displeasure in “do as I say and not as I do” politics.

I was talking with a good friend of mine last evening who, from time to time does motivational speaking. While he typically speaks to adults, he really loves the opportunities to speak to high school and college students. During one recent visit to a local college, he asked the students for their thoughts on various pop music figures. As expected, they were not short on opinions. But then he asked them their thoughts on the current health care debate. This room full of future leaders of America went silent. None of them could share a thought or opinion on something that will affect both their generation or the next. His challenge to them was simple: Stop majoring in the minors.

This is exactly why I have this site in the first place: to encourage people like those college students to read the fine print in areas like politics, social issues, the economy–life, period. Trillion-dollar bills that are being rushed through the process like a fried fish dinner through a pack of church folks during a fast need to be questioned and analyzed by the public. But if the response from that group of college students is any indication on the future direction of this country, politicians will be rated not on the promises they keep, but strictly on their popularity and star power.

Sorta like American Idol.