Pat Boone: Stonewall transparency

"His promise of accountability – of transparency – of responsibility to the voting taxpayers sounded so great. He was elected by voters who believed his words.

"But the first appropriations bill that hit his presidential desk contained $7.7 billion in nearly 9,000 earmarks. And he signed it. When questioned about it, he lamely explained that all this pork had been buried in the bill before and during his election – as if that validated it and excused him from his vow.

"Then he and his advisers quickly devised an $847 billion 'stimulus plan' that would 'bail out' our lending institutions and auto manufacturers, saving and creating thousands of new jobs and stimulating our crippled, struggling economy. This gigantic, frightening plan was put into play without any consultation with the voters, the taxpayers who would have to fund the whole thing.

"Right on the heels of that mind-numbing exercise, a new mandate for a gigantic government-run health-care plan was announced – one that the majority of Americans say they don't really want – one that would cost an estimated one and a quarter trillion dollars. The Democrat-controlled House and Senate appeared ready to roll over and rubber-stamp the administration's wishes, again without giving the voting public any say in it whatsoever.

"In fact, one House bill was over a thousand pages, and was delivered to our cowed representatives the night before they were expected to pass it – without even reading it! What kind of 'transparency' was this?

"Well, the general public, aroused voters by the millions, began to assemble in the offices of their representatives, in town meetings and demonstrations – astounding the administration in a show of anger and militant resistance to these heavy-handed methods that would saddle us all with massive debt and unwanted programs.

"The fire of irate resistance flared higher with the discovery that the president was creating as many as 50 'czars' over vital and powerful functions of our government, a number of them with Communist-sympathizing backgrounds and socialist involvements, some quoting Chairman Mao as their inspirations. Our president informed the Muslim world that 'America is no longer a Christian nation,' and that because of the number of Muslims in our borders that we might be considered 'a Muslim nation.' These and other similar comments amazed the over 80 percent of Americans who still identify themselves as Christian.

"'Transparent'? The word means 'clear,' 'understandable,' 'out in the open' – not hidden, enforced, surreptitious and mysterious."