Accountability should be regarded as more than a buzz word. Our democracy is built on checks and balances so that those who are given extraordinary power are held accountable. But to do that requires more than an occasional press conference, it depends on public disclosure of useful information — or, to use another buzz word, "transparency" — whenever practicable. How else can a president or member of Congress be judged unless Americans have some independent knowledge of what they are up to in Washington?
That makes the latest decision by the
White House to cloak President
Donald Trump in greater secrecy all the more alarming. First, it was the tax returns that Mr. Trump has so obstinately refused to disclose, now it is the White House visitor logs — the equivalent of sign-in sheets that the Secret Service maintains. Last Friday, it was revealed that the current White House occupant will not follow the practice of his predecessor and make public those logs. Press secretary Sean Spicer defended that decision Monday saying what President
Barack Obama allowed, the disclosure of most visitors but the removal of some names, was not helpful to the president or the public.
Such an argument is, of course, rather silly. The Obama White House disclosed 6 million names through its visitors logs over the course of eight years. The Trump White House is planning to release zero. How is that not a step back for government transparency? During Mr. Obama's two terms, the "scrubbed" names often involved personal visitors or those who came for sensitive meetings involving national security. Is it really better to not know the names of anybody, not a single soul who shows up at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? This is a bit like saying the Atkins Diet has too many loopholes involving fruit and vegetables so we're going to stick with cake
Transparency shouldn't be a partisan issue, and, thankfully, there are signs some Republicans in Congress are concerned about all this secrecy as well, at least as rit egards Mr. Trump's tax forms. Here's a leading reason why they should: How can tax reform possibly make its way through the House or Senate if nobody knows what impact it might have on President Trump personally? It's pretty tough to lead with much moral authority when you don't even have enough conviction to reveal your own personal finances as every president since Richard Nixon has.
The visitor logs may not have the same meaning to voters that tax secrecy carries on Tax Day, but maybe they should. Accountability isn't about Americans having just one tidbit of information, it's about having as much information as possible. Mr. Obama's approach was hardly perfect, but it was better than no disclosure whatsoever. If Mr. Trump is as famously sensitive to ratings as people say, perhaps he ought to note this one: The latest
Gallup Poll finds for the first time that most Americans don't think the president keeps his promises (45 percent say he will) and even fewer think him honest and trustworthy (36 percent). You don't restore such a loss of public faith by pulling up the drawbridge.
