Making Government Transparent and Accountable
The Sunlight Foundation uses cutting-edge technology and ideas to make government transparent and accountable. Underlying all of our efforts is a fundamental belief that increased transparency will improve the public's confidence in government
The Sunlight Foundation Blog
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Budget and Deficit Transparency
Earlier this week, the Senate passed an amendment to the unemployment extenders bill that would require the Secretary of the Senate to post information related to the debt effect of each bill that passes the Senate. The vote was 100-0. Unaminous votes are pretty rare in the Senate. This one highlights both the significance that the debt is playing in lawmaker’s minds and the general support for transparency as an idea in Congress.
The bill itself has some issues, which I’ll address here.
First, what does the amendment do? This is the legislative language (which, unlike most legislative language, is pretty straightforward):
(a) In General.–The Secretary of the Senate shall post prominently on the front page of the public website of the Senate (http://www.senate.gov/) the following information: (Continue reading…)
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And the TARP Subsidy Keeps Growing. . .
Buried in prepared testimony by the director of the Congressional Budget Office on Jan. 28 are some eye-catching numbers that reflect the potential cost of the bailout for taxpayers. The CBO’s Douglas Elmendorf told the Senate Budget Committee that $94 billion of the $293 billion allocated to banks and other institutions under the Treasury Department’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) as of Jan. 22 could wind up being subsidies. In short, CBO analysts estimate that almost a third of the money spent by Treasury on stock purchases, loans and asset guarantees may not be recovered, meaning taxpayers would absorb the cost. And here’s a more sobering statement, again from Elmendorf: “Of the $700 billion that the TARP is expected to disburse before the end of December of this year [2009], CBO anticipates that the subsidy cost (after adjusting for market risk) will be about $200 billion.” The TARP Subsidies page of the Subsidyscope Web site provides a breakdown of all the CBO projections to date.
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Track the Bailout on Subsidyscope
Starting today, the Subsidyscope Web site tries to bring a little order to the government’s bewildering economic rescue effort. A project of The Pew Charitable Trusts and the Sunlight Foundation, the site will offer data and analysis on federal market interventions of all types over the next several years. What better place to start than the bailout – the acronym-rich array of stock purchases, loans and loan guarantees that seems to grow bigger each day?
We begin by offering a database of transactions under the Treasury Department’s Troubled Asset Relief Program, better known as TARP. Here you can find the name of each institution that got TARP money; its location; its size (as measured by total assets); and the amount and date of the transaction. We also show a breakdown of the potential subsidy costs of these stock purchases and loans, as estimated by the Congressional Budget Office. TARP transactions become subsidies when the government pays more than market value for stock or makes loans at below-market rates. About a quarter of the $247 billion allocated by Treasury as of Dec. 31 constitutes a subsidy, the CBO reports. In our chart, you’ll see that the subsidy rates for some transactions – e.g., loans to General Motors and Chrysler, estimated by the CBO at 63 percent – are quite high. The average rate for all transactions is 26 percent.
We’ll add numbers, graphics and documents to the site in the coming weeks and months. The aim is to make Subsidyscope a source of comprehensive, easy-to-understand information on the bailout and other massive federal programs.
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Hands on Budgeting
As we head into the general election period, American Public Media, the public radio entity best known for producing A Prairie Home Companion and Marketplace, has launched an instructive and fun online game titled Budget Hero. The game allows you to set the U.S. budget by cutting or raising taxes, and increasing or decreasing spending. You want universal healthcare? Add it to the budget. Increased funding for Social Security? Go for it. Bring the troops home from Iraq? Just do it. Obviously, all such decisions will impact your budget. In this sense, it is similar to the 1993 computer game Shadow President. But with Budget Hero, every major decision, such as to repeal the Bush tax cut and raise taxes on the rich are accompanied with a list of pros and cons and potential impacts.
The folks at American Public Media worked with the Congressional Budget Office and the Government Accounting Office to get the data correct. When you finish, the game allows you to compare your "budget" to other gamers. A serious and detailed review of Budget Hero can be accessed here. This is a fun tool that can teach you alot.
