When Senator Barack Obama visited Madison in October, he told us something we hadn’t heard for a long time from a presidential candidate. He declared, "I will always tell the American people the truth." With the recent revelation that the CIA destroyed two videotapes documenting interrogation of al-Qaida operatives, Mr. Obama's vow to lead our country into a new era of openness and honesty in government is more salient than ever.
Although we may never know what was on those tapes and if they were destroyed to hide evidence of torture, we do know that Congress was never fully informed on the matter. Gen. Michael Hayden, CIA director, claims leaders of congressional oversight committees were briefed on the subject and told the tapes would be destroyed. However, Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., who chaired the committee at the time they were destroyed, said he didn't even know the tapes existed.
With each side telling opposite stories, and President Bush in the middle saying he first heard about this last week, one thing is clear — the cloud of deception, or even the appearance of deception, must stop in our nation's highest office.
And that's where Senator Obama comes in. His vow to always tell the American people the truth is not just lip service. As president, Mr. Obama would lead the way on campaign finance, lobbyist corruption and pork barrel spending.
Since his time in the Illinois state Senate, Mr. Obama has had a reputation for fighting to clean up government. In 1996, he led the charge to reform an Illinois campaign finance system with a long history of corruption. Working across party lines, Mr. Obama crafted a compromise bill banning lobbyist gifts and requiring full disclosure of contributions. Mr. Obama’s plan "revolutionized Illinois’ system," according to Cindi Canary, executive director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform.
When Mr. Obama came to the U.S. Senate in 2004, he saw corruption on an even greater scale and worked to fight it. As indictments rained down on lobbyist Jack Abramoff and all those who benefited from his dealings, Mr. Obama joined forces with Wisconsin's own Senator Russ Feingold to crack down on lobbyists with the Legislative Transparency and Accountability Act.
Described as the "gold standard for reform," this ethics reform bill included a full ban on gifts from lobbyists, an end to subsidized travel on corporate jets, full disclosure of who is sponsoring earmarks and much tighter disclosure requirements for "bundled" political contributions from lobbyists.
As president, Mr. Obama would continue this new era of openness in other ways as well. In order to let the American people know who is influencing our elected officials, Mr. Obama will create a searchable database of lobbying reports, congressional ethics records and campaign finance filings. Available on the Internet, this database will allow Americans to see who their legislators are collecting money from and how much they are receiving. If today's politicians want to take free trips to Scotland to play golf with Mr. Abramoff, like former Republican Reps. Tom Delay and Bob Ney did, their constituents will know about it.
Perhaps Mr. Obama’s best initiative to increase governmental transparency relates to pork barrel spending. Every year, millions of dollars are spent on pet projects for legislators' home districts, the most infamous being the "Bridge to Nowhere" in Alaska. As president, Mr. Obama would seek input from the American public by placing bills on the White House website and inviting public review and comment, which will shine light on any earmarks deemed wasteful.
At the Democratic debate on Oct. 30, Mr. Obama shared his view on this issue. "Part of what we need to do is rebuild the trust in our government again, and that means being open and transparent and accountable to the American people," he said. "And that, I think, is part of the job of the next president: making Americans believe that our government is working for them, because right now, they don’t feel like it’s working for them. They feel like it’s working for the special interests and it’s working for corporations."
The destruction of these CIA tapes "raises serious questions about whether the tapes were destroyed to protect the nature of the interrogation, rather than the identity of the interrogator," Mr. Obama said. This is not accountability, and under an Obama administration, the American people will know the truth.
Through honesty and transparency, Barack Obama will begin to rebuild our trust in government. Only by rebuilding that trust can we bring change that America can believe in.
Shaun Hundle ([email protected]) is a sophomore majoring in economics and international studies. He is also the volunteer coordinator for the UW Students for Obama.
