Obama the Open?

A coalition of liberal, conservative, and libertarian groups has issued an excellent report encouraging the Obama administration to make reforms to create a more open, transparent, and accountable government. Candidate Obama has made extensive promises to further those principles, so let’s make sure he follows through.


The new report focuses on executive branch openness, but greater openness is needed in Congress as well. For tax wonks, the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation is the epitome of government secrecy. That secrecy causes serious problems, including the greater likelihood of passing bad tax laws. I don’t know how likely JCT reforms are in the new Congress or administration, but you can read more about the problems in this Cato report and this Heritage book.