This is another one of those stories the media would be all over if it involved a president named Bush instead of one named Obama.
Nearly two months after President Obama named a high-level panel to help solve the economic crisis, the group still hasn’t held a public meeting. The Presidential Economic Recovery Advisory Board initially said it would meet every few weeks. That was changed to monthly. And that was updated to four times a year.
Here’s how Politico.com reports it:
(C)omments from board members and Obama himself indicate that some members of the panel are meeting, in smaller gatherings that have not been announced or opened to the public. And that raises the question of whether an administration that prides itself on openness and transparency is in fact finding it more convenient to conduct public business in private.
Now, the administration finds itself in a Catch-22: It does not want to say that the president’s economic panel, announced amid much fanfare, is not meeting during the worst economic crisis in generations. But if it is meeting, where’s the announcement, the agenda, the minutes? In short, where’s the sunshine?
Rest assured, we’ll follow up on this story tomorrow. Or next week. Or in late spring. Or whenever this group actually meets. Or doesn’t meet. Or whatever.
Source: Politico.com
