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Transparent Presidents
Open government groups want the presidential contenders to sign an oath that they will reverse the tide of government secrecy.
The Reason Foundation is spearheading an effort involving more that three dozen public interest groups to get presidential candidates to sign the Oath of Presidential Transparency.
The oath commits the candidates to running the “most transparent administration in American history.” It also asks them to pledge that they will implement the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006, a searchable database of federal spending.
To date, three candidates have signed the pledge: Sen. Sam Brownback R-Kan., Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Rep. Ron Paul R-Texas. Brownback just dropped out of the race.
Transparency appears to be on the minds of voters too.
In the 10Questions Presidential Forum, sponsored by MSNBC and bloggers in cooperation with the New York Times, transparency has become a top issue.
An alliance of 36 diverse groups is advocating the presidential accountability oath. The following groups are part of the coalition: American Association of Physicians and Surgeons, American Association of Small Property Owners, Americans for Tax Reform, Budget Watch Nevada, Capital Research Center, Center for Financial Privacy and Human Rights, Center for Individual Freedom, Citizen Outreach Project, Citizens Against Government Waste, Doctors for Open Government, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Evergreen Freedom Foundation, FreedomWorks, Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, Iowa Public Policy Institute, Liberty Coalition, Mackinac Center for Public Policy, Minnesota Free Market Institute, Mississippi Center for Public Policy, National Taxpayers Union, Nevada Policy Research Institute, Reason Foundation, Republican Liberty Caucus, Research Accountability Project, Rio Grande Foundation, Taxpayers League of Minnesota, Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, The Harbor League, The Performance Institute, The Project on Government Oversight, The Pullins Report, The Rutherford Institute, US Bill of Rights Foundation, Velvet Revolution, Virginia Institute for Public Policy, and Washington Policy Center.
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