March 2, 2009
Freedom Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption to promote and protect individual freedom, has begun an investigation of the troubling underpinnings of President Obama’s record busting budget. Today, it began round one of the investigation by filing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), seeking information on the non-governmental entities and Members of Congress that were involved in the crafting of this latest bailout bill. For many years, these “special interest groups” have bought favor with each successive administrations and Members of Congress through campaign donations and other gifts, and in return have exacted special favor from the government, by way of lucrative contracts and appointments to powerful positions. This is the kind of influence that Obama has pledged to eliminate as President, and one of his main campaign talking points was distancing himself from the lobbying machine and Washington “politics as usual.”
“The information obtained from this FOIA request will be a litmus test, a report card of sorts for the Obama regime, to see if it is as serious as it claims about limiting the influence of Washington lobbyists and special interest groups,” says Freedom Watch founder Larry Klayman. “It is important that the American people know who is pulling the strings of our government, especially when those are this nation’s purse strings. With budget projections over the next eight years ranging from such substantial sums of money as $3.5 trillion in 2010 to a whopping $4.9 trillion in 2018, the time for transparency is now, in the initial stages while the budget is still being finalized. THE GOVERNMENT CANNOT BE TRUSTED TO MONITOR AND POLICE ITSELF. FREEDOM WATCH MUST BE THE “WATCHDOG” FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE,” Klayman added.
Klayman further stated, “The accountability has to start now, the exposure has to happen now; otherwise we may find ourselves in another Iraq-like economic and political debacle, only this time it may be a financial insurgency without end. Instead of roadside bombs, it will be bank failure and corporate bankruptcy, instead of sectarian violence, it will be the ‘haves’ clashing against the ‘have-nots.’ Unlike Iraq, let’s be sure to get this one right from the outset.”