We Americans put up with an awful lot
of plain old evil in our society; but there is one thing that we simply will
not tolerate—that is a government that tells us lies. Lately, the American
people have had a very strong suspicion that the government has been lying to
us about the scandal at the IRS, the Fast and Furious scandal, and the debacle
at Benghazi, Libya. It has been very hard to know just how many of our
suspicions have been true, because of the skillful way the administration has
covered up the facts.
Under the Freedom of Information Act,
the large majority of governmental information is supposed to be available to
the people; but the executive branch has worked hard, time and time, again, to
keep important information away from the public and from legislators who need
the information in order to design laws. Congressional committees have had
great difficulty getting information out of the executive branch. Some legal
watchdog groups like Judicial Watch have had better success in getting the
President and his helpers to turn over information; but even they have had huge
difficulties obtaining information. Following is a list of excuses the
administration has used to deny information to people who need it:
“You can’t have it because of
‘executive privilege.’” “You can’t have it because it is in an ongoing
investigation.” “You can’t have it because it is classified (by the
President).” “You can’t have it because the effort to get it will be too
onerous.” “You can’t have it because all of our computers crashed
simultaneously.” “You can’t have it because there is no pertinent information
there, anyway. Trust me.” “I only knew about that when I read it in the
newspaper.” “That happened more than six months ago. Forget it.” “Nobody told
me about that. I can’t be connected with that problem.” “We’re putting that on hold; we’ll get it to
you later (months later).” “We had no reason to believe the data was located
there.” “If you want that information, you have to sue us for it.” And
then…when they finally turn over some information, all the important data is
blacked out! I ask you—is this freedom of information? There may be some truth
to some of the above excuses; but, by and large, these excuses indicate
cover-up of government failures.
“Transparency” in government has become
a joke in this administration, despite the fact that President Obama promised
before he was elected that if he were elected President, he would institute the
most transparent administration in history.
Well, it seems that there will never be
anything like transparency in this administration. Nevertheless, the American
people seem to have suspected a deliberate cover-up of information that might
be damaging to the administration; and they have acted on that suspicion. The
electorate has placed in the House of Representatives the largest majority of
Republicans in years; and they have elected ten more seats in the Senate than
the Democrats occupy.
It is my personal opinion that the
President should be impeached and replaced with someone who will be more honest
with the American people.
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