How to fight corruption from pork barrel politics

This thought was posted on Thinkaloo on 27 February 2007 by member james85

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Pork barrel politics is spending taxpayers money on projects that benefit special interests and lobbyists. Obama proposed that all such spending be reported online for the public to know where the money is spent. Knowing where the money was spent after it was spent helps transparency but doesn't give direct decision making power to the public. I think online majority vote for all such projects will give people full control.

Our democratic system works this way. On local or national elections people vote for their favorite party and representative based on their ideas and proposed policies. Most pork barrel projects however, even if they are promised and announced before election date do not include details. The devil of corruption however is in the details. We should keep in mind that a lot of new projects and their specifics are decided only after elections are over.

In order to give full control to citizens, voters and taxpayers I think it is a good idea to pass law that requires that for any large amount of public spending, majority vote is required by taxpayers whose money will be spent on that project. That will completely take away decision-making influence from the hands of lobbyists and special interests. This way not only transparency but also control will be preserved.

To those who might argue that this idea will make the system more inefficient, I say this. If you can report all transactions online with the click of a button at low cost, then you certainly can have taxpayers vote online in a day at minimal cost.