November 13, 2008 4:01PM # Obama the Open? By [Chris Edwards](https://www.cato.org/people/chris-edwards) --- SHARE A coalition of liberal, conservative, and libertarian groups has [issued an excellent report](http://www.ombwatch.org/21strtkrecs.pdf) encouraging the Obama administration to make reforms to create a more open, transparent, and accountable government. Candidate [Obama has made extensive promises](http://obama.3cdn.net/0080cc578614b42284_2a0mvyxpz.pdf) 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](https://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=1322) and [this Heritage book](http://www.amazon.com/Chamber-Analysis-Estimation-Transparent-Accurate/dp/0891951172/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1226606511&sr=8-1). ##### Related Tags [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).