Palin proposes to be the first to post the U.S. "checkbook" online. Isn't that info online now?

[JimDandy]

Or has no federal entity taken on that task? Like the GAO? Palin implies that the public has never had online access to the U.S. checkbook. Now, I've never gone looking for that kind of info before, so is the implication in her statement true or not?

"I've got another idea that I think Senator McCain likes. In Alaska, we took the state checkbook and put it online, so everyone can see where their money goes. We're going to bring that kind of openness to Washington,"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080915/ap_on_el_pr/palin;_ylt=AgbjtE.72nlIlv7G.TQ.F0TCw5R4

[grasswire]

1. okay, Missy.....is the Alaska checkbook online??

Because I want to see the part about the renovations required to put the tanning bed in the governor's mansion.

[JimDandy]

12. Hahaaa...

If it's there, it's probably listed as "office equipment"!

[Rosie1223]

2. Already done by Obama!

Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act

http://obama.senate.gov/issues/good_government_responsible_spending/

[Bread and Circus]

3. That was what I was just thinking....I hope Obama reminds voters of this.

[JimDandy]

11. Okay ,that's some of the spending side of a checkbook:

"This important bill will bring badly needed transparency to Federal spending by creating a user-friendly website to search all government contracts, grants, earmarks, and loans, thereby opening up Federal financial transactions to public scrutiny."

But what about the income side?

I really like the idea of a checkbook - was just hoping it had been done already.

Is the website in Obama's bill finished yet?

[Egnever]

13. http://usaspending.gov/

yes its done

[JimDandy]

14. Thanks! n/t

[ProgressiveEconomist]

15. It WAS done--until FY 1999--but Dubya scrapped it. See post #8 below. Here's a snip

From http://www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/02statab/fedgov.pdf ,
page 313

"U.S. Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract of the United
States: 2002
Federal Government Finances and Employment
No.462. Per Capita Federal Balance of Payments by State: 1999

[In dollars, except rank. For year ending Sept. 30.
Represents federal spending within the borders of
the 50 states, including defense and excluding
interest payments on the federal debt. Each state
runs a balance of payments surplus or deficit with
the federal government. Put another way, each state
indirectly subsidizes or is being
subsidized by the other states]


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Federal spending in the state
. . . .  Balance. . . . . . . ------------------------------
. . . .. of pay-. .. Federal. . . .1 . . . . Non-. . Social.
. . . .. ments. Rank taxes. . Total Defense defense Security

Alaska.... 2,777 . 6. 4,872 . 7,649. 2,194 . 3,786 .. 657
Arizona..... 904. 20. 4,713 . 5,617. 1,361 . 1,689. 1,474
Delaware. -1,025. 43. 5,876 . 4,851 .. 615 . 1,458. 1,578
Illinois. -1,669. 47. 6,260 . 4,592 .. 354 . 1,442. 1,501

X Not applicable. 1 Includes categories of spending,
not shown separately.

Source: Jay H. Walder and Herman B. Leonard, Tauber
Center for State and Local Government and John F.
Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University,
The Federal Budget and the States, annual.

[AZ Criminal JD]

19. W's first year was federal FY 2002

[ProgressiveEconomist]

24. Since the main inputs to Fisc Reports were OMB reports of ACTUAL FY expenditures,

reconciled with planned expenditures in the budget, the FY 1999 report could not appear until after the FY 1999-2000 budget year was over, in December 2000, when Senator Moynihan was retiring.

The Fisc Reports were Joint Publications of the Taubman Center for State and Local Government, John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and the Office of Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Thus they had no funding when Moynihan retired, and the incoming Bush Administration did nothing to continue them.

See the megabyte PDF final report, at http://www.hks.harvard.edu/taubmancenter/pdfs/fisc/complete_99.pdf

[MadrasT]

4. OMG she is claiming she's going to do something that Obama has already DONE???

Lies and the lying liers who tell them. :grr:

Ooooooo, that makes me angry! :grr: :grr: :grr:

[NotThisTime]

7. Yup, she's way more stupid than we ever imagined.... what a great commercial for Obama, talk about

out of touch? This is what's out of touch, they're proposing things I already passed!

[Egnever]

5. too late Obama already did it

Are these people seriously going to use all of Obamas material?

Senate Passes Coburn-Obama Bill to Create Internet Database of Federal Spending

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senators Barack Obama (D-IL) and Tom Coburn (R-OK) today hailed the Senate's passage of the "Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act," a bill that will create a Google-like search engine and database to track approximately $1 trillion in federal grants, contracts, earmarks and loans.

"By helping to lift the veil of secrecy in Washington, this database will help make us better legislators, reporters better journalists, and voters more active citizens," Obama said. "It's both unusual and encouraging to see interest groups and bloggers on the left and the right come together to achieve results. This powerful grassroots alliance shows that at the end of the day, Americans want to see Congress work together to get something done and not continue to engage in the partisan gridlock that so often brings Capitol Hill to a grinding halt."

[Adelante]

6. Here is the public website itself

http://usaspending.gov/

[Egnever]

9. thnx Wes

Was looking for it and couldn't find it in my million bookmark mess.

Did she actually say this today?

If she did this is a great opening for making her look clueless.

Hope the media picks up on the fact that she is proposing something that is already done.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

8. IMO the Alaska 'Checkbook' is too fine-grained to be useful. It's at LINK

http://fin.admin.state.ak.us/dof/checkbook_online/index.jsp .

What do YOU think?

Until FY 1999, the Statistical Abstract of the US had a great table detailing expenses and revenues by state, and expense categories by state. (See http://www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/02statab/fedgov.pdf page 313).

You could see clearly how Blue states like Illinois and Delaware subsidize Red states like Alaska and Arizona.

But when the Republicans stole the Presidential Election and the report's patron Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan retired at the same time in Y2K, this very useful report disappeared. There still is a table in the Statistical Abstract detailing expenses by category and by state, but the "state balance of payment" information is gone.

[JimDandy]

17. Thanks so MUCH. The website intro line is interesting:

"This is part of a national trend for governments to develop websites that allow constituents to view financial information in searchable formats. Such websites are widely considered to improve transparency into the financial operations of government."

A trend started by Obama's bill perhaps? His bill was passed in Sep 2006. It would be worth searching the legislatures tapes/transcripts of the bill that authorized this website to see when it passed and if the documentation mentioned Obama's bill as the impetus for Alaska's checkbook website.

I have yet to finish looking through the site to see if it is too fine-grained or not.

[walldude]

10. Too bad McCaine won't be able to read it

he's still learning how to send an e-mail... Maybe she can buy him an abacus..

[Jennicut]

25. McLame can always check it on his MacBerry

[Vinca]

16. Oops, Ms. Holier-Than-Thou is off on the wrong track again.

Will she put McBush's 100 years of war checkbook online or keep it buried as Shrub has done? Let's tell this lady we all want our houses painted and see if she'll promise that, too. Maybe I should say those of us who still have our houses.

[JimDandy]

18. Help! I've looked around Palin's Alaska "checkbook" website and can't find ANY Revenues

such as earmark revenues from the feds, taxes from oil companies, state income taxes, etc.

Sheesh - it's not a "checkbook" without both income and expenditures.

Did I miss something?

http://fin.admin.state.ak.us/dof/checkbook_online/index.jsp

[jberryhill]

20. Holy cow... they are setting new benchmarks in dumb

What's next? Her proposal to paint naval vessels gray?

[JimDandy]

21. LOL... thanks for the chuckle.

[Aloha Spirit]

22. I'm glad the article mentions Obama's bill.

[Bleacher Creature]

23. She does realize that the Federal govt. doesn't have a checking account, right?

Please?

[Virginia Dare]

26. Better yet, let's put the Iraqi occupation checkbook online...

I'd also like to see a line by line itemization of how much we spend on Darth Cheney's living expenses, travel and health care.

[EstimatedProphet]

27. She's going to put the nations' debit card number online after that