House Republican: Obama not meeting public's need for transparency

The Obama administration has been unable to keep up with the public's rapidly growing expectations for government transparency, according Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.).

Speaking at the Activism + Media + Politics (AMP) Summit in Washington on Friday, Roskam said the public's appetite for transparency from its elected officials has outpaced the White House's ability to deliver. He said the Obama administration created expectations through its criticisms of the Bush administration during the campaign that have been difficult to meet.

"If they were satisfying everybody, there wouldn't be this sense of something else going on," Roskam said when asked about the success of the White House's transparency initiatives.

Roskam also pointed out that the length of time a party controls Congress has decreased in recent decades from 40 years to potentially only four for the current Democratic majority. He argued the rapid turnover is due to the public's increasing access to information on policy and ability to evaluate for themselves the success of their elected officials.

"The public's attention span is not shortening, the public's tolerance for stuff is shortening," he said.

Roskam said technology is a part of the public's rising expectations, in the form of public disclosures of information that details the implications of policies under consideration. He said such disclosures allow the public to judge for itself whether the government's policies are succeeding or failing.

When asked specifically about the stimulus-tracking website Recovery.gov, which has been attacked by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and other Republicans as propaganda, Roskam said the public should be allowed to decide for itself whether the site is "pure as the driven snow" or meant to manipulate public opinion.