Advice for President Obama on Keeping the Pressure On!

Max's advice for March 6, 2009

Dear President Obama,

Max grew up as the son of a man who knew 'ALL' the answers to the problems of the world. Max's father said so! Many times, his father let everyone know that anyone who didn't know that he had the answers was a turkey or a knucklehead.

The famous Ma Bell, the second most powerful force in the world (next to God of course), thought so much of Max's father's opinions, that she made him 'Supervisor of Troubles'. This is true!

The advice Max promised you, President Obama.

Keep the pressure on states not yet reporting their status!

Max, like the majority of Americans, hopes that the country returns to a sound and positive environment for working people. Some of the states appear to be taking the lead in reporting what they are doing with the recovery funds.

Mr. President, your team needs to keep an eye on those states that are not making their use of the stimulus funds openly available in a responsive way.

Max was happy to see that Governor Perdue of North Carolina is reporting on the funds via the recovery site. It is interesting to look at what kinds of information the goverments of the reporting states are putting up on the sites.

Looking at three states, Maine, Vermont, and North Carolina, it is easy to see that there is a basic inconsistency developing in the reporting that may make comparisons difficult as the recovery goes forward.

North Carolina's website reached from the map is focused very much on the recovery stimulus program money. Some of the information is provided redundantly, but it stays focused on the recovery funds at a fairly high level.

Maine's website reached from the map is focused on economic data and information that predates the stimulus package. It also has a tour site view telling folks about Maine and the first family. It has a bundle of data but seems to be way off message.

Vermont's website reached from the map is focused on hard economic data related to the stimulus. Though the focus is on the stimulus, the level of detail of some of the data is very granular.

Max likes the fact that all three states are providing data that is potentially useful and that their citizens should have access to. The lack of consistency across the websites multiplied by the remaining states and terrritories means that the federal government may have a difficult time figuring out what is going on.

Though it is fine that part of the websites be used for propaganda and state bragging, each site needs to have specific components that are organized in a common format so that people can compare objectively who is doing the job.

Mr. President, if you want to point out where funds are not being spent properly, you need to have a matrix that everyone agrees on.

Then there are the states that just aren't yet providing any data yet. If they are receiving funds, they need to play with the rest of us. If they do not want the funds, who cares if they provide no data. It needs to be as simple as that. States either need to start reporting or they should return the funds. That is what accountability is all about.

Max wishes you well in all your efforts to keep the politicians accountable.

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Link one is the state recovery page with a map of the states.

Link two is Oklahoma's state recovery page about where the money is going.

Link three is to the Kansas site.