Online tracking of the stimulus plan: an excellent example

Posting written by Diogo Vasconcelos over 3 years ago. No comments yet.

 
 
President Obama has announced plans to launch Recovery.gov, a website dedicated to keeping track of all the money the government spends in the stimulus. This is a excellent example of open government: a willingness to share, be accountable and (hopefully) get feed back. 
Recovery strategies are too serious to fail - otherwise we will be paying the social and economic costs for many years to come. It's our right, as citizens, to be aware of the content and specifics, to know one by one the projects where the money will be spent and what are the real measure of success of this investments. Are there any similar initiatives elsewhere? All the governments should embrace the same open approach intended by Recovery.gov.
Hundreds of billions will be spent all over the world - unfortunately some on non competitive companies (a good example is the Detroit auto industry). Recovery strategis can be an unique opportunity to shape a new paradigm. We need the plans to be focus on the short term measures to stimulate the economy, but also on long-run creative structural change. That means innovation for sustainable growth and economic regeneration, fostered by an 21st century infraestructures and by an entrepreneurial attitude. Economic, social and public services innovation. But citizens have to not just the right to be informed, they  should be involved on implementation the recovery agenda. Recovery.gov is a good example  as a potential powerful platform for real nationals and not just "government-owned" recovery strategies.
 

The core ingredients of the US plan

On his first weekly address since being sworn in as the 44th president of the United States, President Barack Obama discusses how the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan (to be approved by the Congress) can play a decisive role. Here are it's core ingredients.   
 

(,..) This is not just a short-term program to boost employment. It’s one that will invest in our most important priorities like energy and education; health care and a new infrastructure that are necessary to keep us strong and competitive in the 21st century.

To accelerate the creation of a clean energy economy, we will double our capacity to generate alternative sources of energy like wind, solar, and biofuels over the next three years. We’ll begin to build a new electricity grid that lay down more than 3,000 miles of transmission lines to convey this new energy from coast to coast. We’ll save taxpayers $2 billion a year by making 75% of federal buildings more energy efficient, and save the average working family $350 on their energy bills by weatherizing 2.5 million homes.

To lower health care cost, cut medical errors, and improve care, we’ll computerize the nation’s health record in five years, saving billions of dollars in health care costs and countless lives. And we’ll protect health insurance for more than 8 million Americans who are in danger of losing their coverage during this economic downturn.

To ensure our children can compete and succeed in this new economy, we’ll renovate and modernize 10,000 schools, building state-of-the-art classrooms, libraries, and labs to improve learning for over five million students. We’ll invest more in Pell Grants to make college affordable for seven million more students, provide a $2,500 college tax credit to four million students, and triple the number of fellowships in science to help spur the next generation of innovation.

Finally, we will rebuild and retrofit America to meet the demands of the 21st century. That means repairing and modernizing thousands of miles of America’s roadways and providing new mass transit options for millions of Americans. It means protecting America by securing 90 major ports and creating a better communications network for local law enforcement and public safety officials in the event of an emergency. And it means expanding broadband access to millions of Americans, so business can compete on a level-playing field, wherever they’re located.

Hope that Obama's recovery website will make other leaders follow the example -  for instance, in Europe.