The Obama Administration lacks transparency, resists oversight

The president and his minions have made a mockery of his promise to be the most transparent administration in history.

by Henry I. Miller and Jeff Stier The Hill's Congress Blog

Congressional oversight of Executive Branch agencies is a fundamental element of the checks and balances that prevent abuses of power in any one branch of government. The Obama Administration has resisted that oversight repeatedly for a range of reasons, all nefarious.  Whether it related to Hillary Clinton, IRS official Lois Lerner, or lower-profile influence peddling cases, the resistance to oversight has been grounded in politics, not principle. The president and his minions have made a mockery of his promise to be the most transparent administration in history.

A recent example is the request from Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, for materials to shed light on a particularly egregious waste of taxpayer dollars at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). At its best, NIH-funded research provides much of the basic science knowledge that spurs medical progress. Although agency's budget is large, its resources are finite, and given that fewer than 20% of investigator-initiated grants are funded, the support of trivial or wrong-headed projects diverts money from important research.  ....To Read More....