Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Use transparency to end welfare abuse

The government transparency movement caught fire when Republican U.S. Senator Tom Coburn and Democratic U.S. Senator Barack Obama worked together to put some federal expenditures online.

As with most very good ideas, this one hasn't yet awakened Kentucky's legislative leaders, despite their promises.

Let's require recipients of all forms of welfare including Section 8, food stamps, EITC, and Medicaid to be posted on the internet. Those figures have to be written down and reported anyway. Just make the reporting electronic and let the public see the data. People would think twice about welfare fraud if they knew the neighbors were watching.