With the latest rendition of the “stimulus” bill heading to the Senate, after passing without partisan support in the House, the pressure is still on the Obama administration to prove spending nearly $900 billion of our money to “stimulate” the economy will actually work.  (I use quotation marks around the word stimulus intentionally, since I’m not sure anyone in Washington actually knows what stimulates anything.)

Stimulus Watch

Obama has also offered transparency and a new age of accountability in his administration, and with the nomination of two clowns that can’t pay their taxes to his cabinet, I have reason to believe the whole transparency thing may become a subjective talking point rather than a new standard.

Luckily, there are a few creative people out there with the technical expertise to help President Obama fulfill his promise of transparency, starting with the “stimulus” bill coming to a Senators desk near you.

Jerry Brito started StimulusWatch.org as a means to track federal grant money stemming from the passing of the “stimulus” bill, should it happen.

Jerry is a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University focuses on government transparency and accountability.  In specific, he studies how the internet can be used to help keep government officials accountable.

Essentially, Jerry and his team took the U.S. Conference of Mayors report that contains a list of “shovel-ready” projects to help President Obama spend $900 billion effectively.

So how how do I use the website?

The website lets everyday Joe’s like you and me review the list of projects that the Conference of Mayors supplied to President Obama.  You can search for projects in your state, by the number of jobs created for that project, by the total cost per project, etc.

You can then rank and comment on each project and vote as to whether or not you think an individual project is “critical” or not.

As of this posting, the least critical project would be providing doorbells in Laurel, Mississippi. It would only create 2 jobs, and would cost just shy of $100,000.

The most expensive project would involve providing new energy efficient industrial zones in Puerto Rico to the tune of $17.5 billion.

Where do I sign up?

The site is free to peruse, and if you wish to participate in the ranking and discussion, you’ll need to sign up with an email address and a password (it’s free).

So there you have it.  Technology helping our new leader keep his word.

Economics, Politics government waste, Obama, spending, stimulus bill, Stimulus Watch