As a candidate for office back in 2008, Barack Obama ran on a promise to have the most transparent presidency ever, yet it seems Obama is more interested in opacity rather than keeping campaign promises.
During his first inaugural address in January 2009, Obama once again touched on his campaign promise, saying, “Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency.” Since that moment, he’s failed time and time again to keep that promise.
A week ago — ironically on National Freedom of Information Act Day — the White House determined the Office of Administration no longer was required to comply with the Freedom of Information Act. According to the notice released by the White House, the Office of Administration would no longer be accepting new FOIA requests and therefore keeping its government information shaded to the public eye. This decision came as a final notice stripping the citizens the right to comment before it takes affect.
Citing a precedent from a 2009 ruling from an appellate court in Washington, the Office of Administration is technically not considered a government agency since it deals with only “operational and administrative tasks in support of the president and his staff,” and therefore is not required to comply with FOIA. This ruling was brought about when in 2008 the Bush administration decided the same as the Obama administration — that the Office of Administration need not comply with FOIA — and subsequently was sued by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington after deleting 22 million e-mails.
However, during Obama’s campaigning, he vowed to be as transparent as possible, and many of his once supporters are now seeing this as a step back with his administration. Not to mention, this move comes eerily close to the Hillary Clinton email scandal. The newly walled off Department of Administration is responsible for all electronic correspondence for the White House, including the President. Why the White House decided to wait six years to cite this precedent is unclear.
The President has made many promises during his time campaigning concerning the workings of his administration that he has not kept. A man who once called whistleblowers to be “acts of courage and patriotism” has ironically persecuted the most out of every president before him. The Obama administration has so far persecuted eight separate people under the centuries old Espionage Act.
This President, who also looked down his nose on the use of Executive Orders, has issued a total of 203 Executive Orders. Which, albeit, is currently less than those issued by Bush in his administration (291), but the past two Democratic presidents combined so far issued 567 compared to the past two Republican presidents at 457. The difference being, President Obama has another almost two years and at this rate, he’s well on his way to surpass his immediate Republican predecessor.
For an administration which likes to revel in transparency, this government has had one embarrassing transparency issue after another. From the NSA spy games, to the secret drone war in Pakistan, even down to the recent Hillary private email scandal, this administration doesn’t seem to understand the concept of the promise it made to the American people.
With the election fast approaching, it’s this columnist’s hope the American people choose to continue the momentum gained in 2014 voting out those who lie to our faces, and instead vote for those want to pull the Constitution out of the shredder and protect the sanctity of what our forefathers had envisioned.
Reach the columnist at Derrik.Rochwalik@asu.edu or follow @drochwalik on Twitter
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Editor’s note: The opinions presented in this column are the author’s and do not imply any endorsement from The State Press or its editors.
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