According to Howard Gleckman over at TaxVox, the blog of the Urban and Brookings Joint Tax Policy Center, due to a shortsighted revenue generator Congress put in place several years ago, wealthy individuals will soon be able to convert taxable investments into tax-free nest eggs, and deny the government needed revenues down the road. It's a perfect example of the unintended consequences of public policy and one of those things that make you either want to scratch your head or beat it against the wall, or both.

This week, Recovery Act transparency will begin to take center stage. Today, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee held a hearing on stimulus spending and the Council of Economic Advisors released its report on the economic impact of the Recovery Act, while later this month the Government Accountability Office will release its third bimonthly report on Recovery Act implementation and transparency. To highlight strengths and weaknesses of disclosure and accountability in Recovery Act spending, OMB Watch is releasing a comprehensive report on Recovery Act transparency.

Today, OpenTheGovernment.org released its 2009 Secrecy Report Card.  The report makes use of most quantitative indicators currently available to compare the Obama and Bush administrations.  While it is too early to effectively compare the two administrations the report notes a slight decrease in secrecy levels during the end of the Bush administration.  Further, while the Obama administration is pursuing a promise of unprecidented openness the results are mixed.

Today, the Obama administration made an important advance in executive branch transparency by agreeing to publish the White House visitor logs.  Norm Eisen wrote on the White House blog that, “Each month, records of visitors from the previous 90-120 days will be made available online.”  The White House agreed to this measure as part of a settlement in a lawsuit brought by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).  As part of this settlement, the Obama administration will also turn over some visitor logs belonging to the Bush administration.