Obama's Shine The Light - Very Dim At Best

The text appearing in blue is the direct and complete section from Obama's "Roadmap To Change" platform. No words, sentences, or paragraphs have been left out. Comments are below each section and are in black.

BARACK OBAMA’s -
Shine the Light on Federal Contracts, Tax Breaks and Earmarks

Create a Public “Contracts and Influence” Database: As president, Obama will create a “contracts and influence” database that will disclose how much federal contractors spend on lobbying, and what contracts they are getting and how well they complete them.

Oh, how the words sound so great and produce so little for the public. After studying Obama’s campaign of raising money this is the perfect ticket for nearly NO transparency.

Hard to believe? Then read on!

Lobbyists are tied to “special interest groups” that may represent the auto industry, health care, air transportation industry, AARP, teachers, defense equipment manufactures, some foreign government, and so forth. Did you notice that only one of these groups would even fall under “federal contractors?” The rest are not even in play under Obama’s plan. They get a free pass.

One way Obama has avoided “taking lobbyist money” is to take it directly from the CEO’s and top management. The number one person receiving donations from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac people is Obama. Yet you do not find the money listed under PACs (Political Action Committee) or lobbyist on his reports.

Obama is also the largest recipient of donations from Blue Cross Blue Shield of California. He is the largest single recipient of donations from four of the largest health care insurance companies in this country. Get the point…. He avoided the “lobbyist” tag and tried to hide the fact from the general public, the best he could. He laundered the donations to make it appear he is something he is not.

Even to carry out this “Contracts and Influence” Database will require the highering a fair number of federal employees to pull the data together, enter it into the database and maintain it. How the contracts are graded, based on completion is unknown, as there is no fixed set of rules, there no grading system, and no system of collecting the data.


Expose Special Interest Tax Breaks to Public Scrutiny: Barack Obama will ensure that any tax breaks for corporate recipients – or tax earmarks – are also publicly available on the Internet in an easily searchable format.

Any special taxing of the business sectors, regardless if good or bad would fall into this. There are a number of Internet web sites that already do this, on a daily basis. They are watchdog groups who do it and it is paid by private funding. This would be a case of duplicating what the someone in the private sector is already doing and would require the highering of more federal employees.



End Abuse of No-Bid Contracts: Barack Obama will end abuse of no-bid contracts by requiring that nearly all contract orders over $25,000 be competitively awarded.

Besides slowing down government response even more, increasing the number of federal employees, and closing out more small business of the process it seems like a good idea. Say What?

If anything the federal government already has an over burdensome system of bidding for most small contract work. Nine out of ten small businesses wishing to do business with the government give up because of just getting qualified is not worth the financial cost.

Bid contracts take some time to write up the specs, a required period of time to accept bids, review the bids, announce the bids, publish bids prior to final award. That should only add a few months to every government purchase.

Most are “screw ups” and not abuse (people carrying this out can be fired) are just that. Hurricane Katrina proved can happen. Did lower level employees of FEMA do it on purpose? I don’t think so. Just like I would not assume if your boss gave you two hours to find and buy six pairs of Sarah Palin style eyeglass rims that you could at the lowest possible price. You could end up paying more then you would have if given a day to search. Plus, if the frame house knew you had only two hours, and most of that time was up, they may gouge you some.

The other time is during war time. Some say President Bush allowed for such abuse during the early part of the Iraq war. It sounded like it to me but you know what? Congress never held any real formal investigations and never even took a letter of censure to the floor of congress. So I think it was posturing by those who opposed the war.

So this entire idea of Obama’s will call for the additions of no less then dozens of people to process and manage such. We may save a million dollars a year by this but spend twenty-five million doing it.




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.


Here we go again.

There are watchdog groups, depending on what the bill deals with, on the Internet. Most of them offer free access and they review bills and provide insight into what it does.
By the time it would ever get to Obama’s desk would be a little too late. Then again maybe he will let whoever has access to the Internet have a vote on the bill. Who ever gets the most votes will decide if it gets signed or not. Now that will show some real leadership and stepping up to the plate!



Shine Light on Earmarks and Pork Barrel Spending: Obama’s Transparency and Integrity in Earmarks Act will shed light on all earmarks by disclosing the name of the legislator who asked for each earmark, along with a written justification, 72 hours before they can be approved by the full Senate.

A law that has been tried many many times before and rejected by Congress time and time again! The votes are not even close!

This bill does not end or even curtail earmarks. It gives the public notice, but it sure does not say some public access Internet database either. Maybe it will be written on a calk board, just outside the janitor’s room, at the far end of the hall!

You want to stop them then give the President the same rights that governor of Alaska has. The governor can reduce the amount or strike it entirely on a line by line basis. That would stop earmarks because the BUCK STOPS AT THE PRESIDENTS DESK!

Again we will have to hire more people to track and publish this information to some unknown place