To stabilize the nation's public-employee pension systems and to prevent federal taxpayers from being billed for failed pension funds, I have introduced the Public Employee Pension Transparency Act in Congress.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Transparency is not about restoring trust in institutions. Transparency is the politics of managing mistrust.
The movement towards radical transparency and accountability has been gaining steam for several decades.
I believe transparency in government is key to restoring our nation's faith in its elected leaders.
Fostering transparency and accountability at the Federal Reserve was one of my principal objectives when I became Chairman in February 2006.
The First Nations Financial Transparency Act insulted the integrity of the very people in our communities who guide our economic policy and act as our mediators with provincial and federal governments.
I think people have a legitimate right to minimise their tax obligations if they can, but they should pay their fair whack. I do think it's important to be transparent.
But I will say, I think there are some Democrats that don't want to address pension reform. I have taken on the issue of seniority and tenure. I think we have to address entitlements and the president has done that in his budget. I think we have to extend Medicare and the president has done that. But also reinvest in that program.
We can't reform mandatory spending in this area until we first deal with ours. I tell my colleagues, 'Let's get the moral high ground and demonstrate that we want to make changes to our pension, and then we can deal with the big problems.'
In our recovery package we put new standards of accountability and transparency, which we hope will now apply.
I introduced the Transparency in Government Act, a multi-faceted transparency bill that would bring unprecedented access and accountability to the federal government.