"The Most Transparent Administration In History...."

Those were not only President Obama's words during his campaign he said them again last year, on Valentine's Day.

“This is the most transparent administration in history,” Obama said during a "Fireside Hangout" on Google Plus.

“I can document that this is the case,” he continued. “Every visitor that comes into the White House is now part of the public record. Every law we pass and every rule we implement we put online for everyone to see.”

Apparently he believes that as long as White House visitors are recorded (something that is still very questionable today) and that new legislation is eventually put on the internet (but not necessarily five days before he sings it, as promised) that guarantees he has a transparent administration.

It's not the first time President Obama has promised transparency. On January 21, 2009, the day after his inauguration, President Obama wrote one of his first memos to federal agencies. “We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration,” he wrote. “Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.”

I wonder if the State Department, the Justice Department, the IRS, the NSA, and others got the memo? There are so many examples that say otherwise...  Benghazi, Fast and Furious, the IRS scandal, NSA data collection... but today I'm going to talk about a new one.

In a rare case of actual reporting by a member of the main stream media, CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller criticized the Obama administration for refusing to reveal how much his fund raising trips actually cost the tax payers.

“Repeated requests are turned down for a breakdown of the costs and an explanation and specific examples of how the White House calculates how much is paid by taxpayers and how much must be reimbursed to the government by the Democratic National Committee or others,” Knoller wrote. “There’s absolutely nothing in the information related to national security. It wouldn’t do ISIS a bit of good if it got hold of the information.”

Knoller's contention is that the White House “doesn’t want to disclose the material because it might be embarrassing and would draw lots of criticism, which Mr. Obama can do without.”

“The brick wall erected around that information by Mr. Obama’s White House flies in the face of his oft-stated commitment to transparency and open government,” Knoller concluded.

Before anyone else says it  let me...  "Bush didn't disclose how much he spent on fundraising!" 

I don't know if that's true or not but frankly it has nothing to do with the topic at hand. That topic is President Obama's promise, from his own lips, to be transparent about everything. It's a promise he has broken over and over. The President has told so many lies in the last six years and this may have been the first one. Even his golf games aren't transparent.

I know, I know...  "The President deserves to play golf in private and relax...!" He might deserve that if he had not made that statement about transparency. He caused his own problem. And he can't blame this one on Bush because the words came from his mouth, twice. 

Oh, wait... he can blame anything on Bush. I forgot. Silly me.