Muscatine

Promises broken...open Government, huh?

Obama signs first law without Web comment

Updated: Thursday, January 29th, 2009 | By Angie Drobnic Holan

One of President Obama's major campaign planks was making government more open and accountable. It's a reaction to a habit in Congress of rushing bills through the House and Senate without giving people much opportunity to know what the bills would do. Indeed, sometimes members of Congress don't even know what's in the bills.

So Obama pledged during the campaign to institute "sunlight before signing."

"Too often bills are rushed through Congress and to the president before the public has the opportunity to review them," Obama's campaign Web site states. "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."

But the first bill Obama signed into law as president -- the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act -- got no such vetting.

In fact, the Congressional Record shows that the law was passed in the Senate on Jan. 22, 2009, passed in the House on Jan. 27, and signed by the president on Jan. 29. So only two days passed between the bill's final passage and the signing.

The legislation was not posted to the White House Web site for comment in any way that we could find.

We see no way the bill could be deemed emergency legislation, even taking the broadest view. The bill overturns the effects of a Supreme Court decision that limited when workers could sue for pay discrimination. Most pertinently, the bill is retroactive to the time of the court decision -- May 28, 2007. Obama earned a Promise Kept from us for signing the law. But it would have the same effect if had been signed a few days later, so it's clearly not an emergency.

We asked the White House about this and if they planned to begin posting laws to the Web site for comment soon, but we got no response.

Obama signed the measure at 10:20 a.m. About two hours later, the White House posted the bill on its Web site with a link that asks people to submit comments. But the bill was already signed at that point. 

We recognize that Obama has been in office just a week, but he was very clear about his plan for a five-day comment period, and we can't see why this one needed to be rushed. It is somewhat ironic that with the same action, Obama both keeps and breaks a campaign promise. But there it is -- his first one. Promise Broken.

Good afternoon Mary M.

Good golly miss molly! what a wonderfully cozy day this one has turned out to be- So warm and sunny, Thought we were in Florida for a moment.

Without setting up those old "targets" again, I would just have to say that those who let "another slip by the goalie", were likely mired down in the ambiguity of the purpose of war, and affected by the uncertainty of what Kerry was capable of? while he seemed to stand against the war during the campaign, he did vote to authorize it which did indeed hurt him. A warring nation tends to allow the "fire Starter" the full run of dowsing authority, hence another four years opportunity to finish the job? Of course, there were many who simply refused to vote any change, or challenge the power grab at hand. Party loyalty and tar-bound mentalities were horrendously prevalent, along with a plethora of apathy and despondence. We were truly an nation divided and confused about many things. Fear of new attacks, fear of losing jobs, fears for our energy reliance, and the hope that a man/captain who already stood against all those issues- rallying our fears, we thought he might actually take us out of that rough water. Little did many know how it would turn. Especially being told repeatedly how "great things"  actually were in spite of the realities our paychecks were suffering. Folks just swallowed every drop, well many did anyway--- while many just gave up. Even overstating how wonderfully the "war winning" progression was going---- played a major role in that second shot. I'd have to say that while we were watching the magician, we forgot to watch the assistant. History will give Mr. Bush many passes I suspect, but any wise person should never forget the realities in failure we ALL have suffered educationaly and economically, especially thanks to the relentless efforts to shove those six years of job killing trade deals down the throats of our pocketbooks.

Obama will be watched closely as any president should, and although this appointment stinks a bit of hypocrisy, as "Its" and others have put things, hammering the promise factor a week or so into the job and office, seems a bit heavy handed at best. "The first hundred days" Most would let the man and his camp work a little longer before starting to build that dunk tank.

God Bless

So, how low do you think the rating will go now that we all know of at least TWO cabinet members who have had tax-paying problems? First we have Geithner who didn't know 'how to do Turbo Tax' and unfortunately didn't pay taxes for four years UNTIL he learned that he was in line for a cabinet position. How conVEEENient. Now we have Daschele who somehow managed to obtain this high dollar gig that provided him with door-to-door and lo and behold - he forgot to claim that as income and now that he is slated to be a cabinet member, remembers and by golly pays those taxes. Heck, if we can get enough of them to 'fess up we might be in a better economic position than we thought.

Nobama wants to close Gitmo - maybe his old buddy Blago will help him move those 'prisoners' to that prison in Tompson, IL. No one seems to know what he has planned - and frankly I don't think he HAS a plan but needed to pay lip service to a campaign promise.

We'll see how kind the media is going to be on all of this crap. I can well imagine how they would be howling if this was conservative!

So far, this 'stimulus' BS looks and smells just like that. We will have to see what the Senate does to make this something that will, indeed, help America. 

Howdy JustC.

I didn't know about the Daschele hubub. Geithner should have been turned out immediately, though I think it was actually one year's taxes that he let slip by him. No excuse to be sure, and he shouldn't have been considered. I'd have to say that there seems to be a rapid progression within opinion, "us vs Them" kind of mix that all too often tends to reflect an opposition opinion over the majority. Pols are pols until election time, then they seem to mean something. Obam's choices have been relatively acceptable to most (I hear), but time will tell as it usually does.  Regarding that stimulus package, I think it's a bandage upon a gaping wound as was that first 852 Billion Bush and congress shoved down our throats in Nov. That only gave bags of gold to the least deserving. The tax cuts in this round seem fair, but I'd rather have a little bit better percentage than offered so far. I tend to agree with the repubs there for now. A lot less to arts and other nations and more to researching disease and help for mortgage holders seems a better plan. The dems are setting the stage for a major loss in 2010. But some gridlock is a good thing as we all should have learned last election.  If the senate cannot "feel our pain" then I cannot see anything but a short trip to failure, especially since they seem to be talking about doing nothing! to stop the corporate exodus of our manufacturing jobs. If Obama wants to do anything about that! he had better light a fire under some congressional butts and get those ridiculous free trade deals shut down and we might start to see some jobs come back home. Good heavens we need term limits for ALL these fools.

God Bless