How Clear Is Transparent?

Wow! Clouded is the prevailing word to describe what’s going on with the “Stimulus” money. Can’t wait to get is out there…

I’m reminded of how institutions which receive “grant” funds have to account for them. Actually it’s quite simple, “Spend it all or lose it for succeeding years.” Getting it spent actually becomes more important than how it’s spent!  Can you believe that? In my other life, occasionally I would have to audit grant recipients to determine if they qualified for renewals of the funds. Many times, if they hadn’t spent all of the grant funds, subsequent grants could either be reduced in amount approved or denied completely. Needless to say getting it spent became of utmost priority.

Stimulus money… yes, it does need to be distributed quickly. That’s the whole idea, right? But, where is the clarity on how it’s being delved out? Why do we have to receive reports of low priority situations having received more than their share while some deserving high priority location is overlooked. It’s politics as usual! And, it wasn’t supposed to happen.

It seems to me that “transparent” would necessitate a contiguous, publicly available, list of approved and or completed distributions from the stimulus package funds.

Please, don’t keep us guessing. It’s our money, tell us what’s happening with it.

That’s what I think, for what it’s worth!

Your comments are appreciated.

Beck

I’m certainly not surprised at some of the advertisers dropping Beck, but I don’t agree with their reasoning either. In fact, I wonder where “free speech” enters into the quagmire. Are we now going to muzzle the voice of public expression? The statement was strong! Why? Because it hit hard on the President of the USA, but was it wrong in that it represented stated opinion.  How far can our right to speak freely go?

I wonder how the conservatives of America will feel about this extreme pressure at the very heart of the source and expression of their  political agenda. Will they let it slide or have the advertisers themselves bitten of a larger bite than they can chew?

What do you think? There are other fish in the sea.