I’m probably a bit late to the party, but I tripped across something interesting today.  It seems our government is wasting no time preparing for the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, better known as the $800+ billion “stimulus” currently working its way through Congress.  It seems that the government has decided to launch a website, recovery.gov, apparently as a way to let anyone with an Internet connection keep track of where their tax dollars are being spent.  The idea itself is fundamentally interesting, though I am rather of two minds about what it is that I’m actually seeing.

On the one hand, there is more than a small amount of irony behind the site which is, currently, nothing but a placeholder for after the bailout is passed.  The site proudly bills itself as being “part of an unprecedented effort to root out waste, inefficiency, and unnecessary spending in our government.”  It would seem to me that not passing a wasteful, inefficient, and unnecessary spending bill in the first place would be a much more effective way to go about accomplishing that goal.  Nevertheless, I suppose it is good to know that the government recognizes that the bill is each of those things, and that they are willing to spend even more money to at least let us watch and bicker about the details.

On the other hand, I actually rather like the idea of having a site which details out where all of the government’s money is being spent.  Of course, if the government is really serious about rooting out waste, inefficiency, and unnecessary spending, I can think of no reason to stop at a single Act.  There is, after all, a lot of goverment spending going on even without considering all of the money being spent or proposed for economic recovery.  I expect that very few people  have any idea where the money actually goes, aside from the occasional media reports about pork earmarks winding its way into high profile legislation.  A convenient system for inspecting the details of the federal budget and an ongoing report of expenses actually paid would be a very welcome and useful innovation.

The interesting question whcih will be intersting to watch unfold is whether recovery.gov will result in any substantial changes being made to the stimulus funding once the program is in place.  Federal spending programs have historically been incredibly difficult to abort mid-course even in the face of significant public outcry for reform.  The ultimate test of reform.gov will be whether or not it allows changes to be made as soon as “waste, inefficiency, [or] unnecessary spending” become apparent in the stimulus plan.