Read the Small Print

After kvetching about the deafening silence of citizen journalists on the stimulus plan, I was forwarded an interesting link, under the subject line "Hooray for our first Digital President" (thanks, Ruby).

Recovery.gov offers a "totally transparent" view into the distribution of tax dollars toward economic growth. The data purports to allow the taxpayer to track our government's progress every step of the way, and invites feedback on what is, and isn't, working in terms of how the Recovery Act is affecting we-the-people.

There's an amusing chart that shows the breakdown (in billions) of the distributed funds. The general categories of investment are Tax Relief ($228B), State and Local Fiscal Relief ($144B), Infrastructure and Science ($111B), Protecting the Vulnerable ($81B), Health Care ($59B), Education and Training ($53B) and Energy ($43B). And there's a rounding error of $8B dedicated toward something called "Other."

Funny thing is the footnote. I'll paste it here, resisting the urge to make it reallllly tiny:
* Tax Relief - includes $15 B for Infrastructure and Science, $61 B for Protecting the Vulnerable, $25 B for Education and Training and $22 B for Energy, so total funds are $126 B for Infrastructure and Science, $142 B for Protecting the Vulnerable, $78 B for Education and Training, and $65 B for Energy.

So technically, that's only $105B in Tax Relief, which seems mainly to be a category loaded with funds better categorized in other categories.

At least the footnotes are transparent, if not the headlines.

Oh, and issues with clarity aside, Recovery.com a pretty amazing tool for citizens to observe the working of their government. Just be careful what you wish for.

Government "By the People"

It took a while to recover from the election. And then there was that pregnant period between election and inauguration. All the focus on fashion, exhausting.

So here we are back in real life. The economy has tanked, thanks to a perfect storm of greed, irresponsibility, and well... because shit happens. Our new government has prepared and is in the midst of approving a recovery and reinvestment plan designed to stimulate the economy, ostensibly loaded with projects designed to create millions of jobs and loads o' commerce.

But because no opportunity to move a personal agenda forward can go unseized, we have instead a bill loaded with programs and projects which will have no immediate (and possibly no ever) effect on the economy. What causes stimulation? Adrenaline. A shock to the system. Yes, you can invest in grammar school education, and yes, it may improve the quality of the workforce in twenty years. But does it cause the market to reverse its slide? Companies to begin investing in growth and hiring? Consumers to begin consuming again?

This past election cycle brought a revolution in participatory government. Candidates were dissected, platforms compared point-by-point. The People asked questions of the government-to-be in thousands of digital forums – and the government had no choice but to answer. We saw a true "election by the people" – WE decided on the issues that politicians needed to talk about. WE created cultural movements to which they were compelled to respond. WE finally had a platform through which every one of us could engage in the process of shaping our future.

Now here we are, in government as usual. And the voices that shaped the election are silent.

Digital America, where did you go?