Task Forces

I am commenting here on the segment available in our book that compares the energy group put together by Bush with the healthcare taskforce put together by Clinton. I'm a little frustrated by the legal comparison, because as far as I can tell, there are some major differences between the two cases. The Clinton taskforce seems almost completely legitimate, while the Bush group looks sketchy, at best.

Clinton's Healthcare Committee:

-Utilizes the first lady, who is not officially a federal employee. This is the only real argument for FACA that the opposition has against the committee. I think the first lady should be put on a federal payroll (even if it's for $1/year) or do whatever it takes so that she can be officially classified as a federal employee. It's a bit ridiculous to imply that she's not. This is one case where her affiliation with the president pretty much makes her a federal employee (first ladies don't ever have other jobs, do they?). Anyway, I think you get my point. This argument is pretty ludicrous.

-Holds meetings in secret, but discloses membership.

-Membership consists only of federal employees (well, and the first lady.)

Bush/Cheney's Energy Task force:

-Done completely in secrecy, even the membership is largely unknown. This doesn't give the public a way to even check if the information flowing to the president is one-sided or representational, which is crucial in comparing energy initiatives with environmental ones.

-Appears to have non-federal employees from different interest groups on the committee. This thing just screams of corruption to me.

Maybe I read that introduction wrong (that describes the different groups), but this is what I got out of it anyway. I think that the president needs to be able to operate often with a certain amount of secrecy in order to be able to make quick decisions. However, even where we allow a level of secrecy certain checks and balances need to be kept in place in order to ensure an efficient, representational government. Clinton's task force gave some valuable disclosure that Bush/Cheney's group withheld, and that is the key difference to me.

...or maybe I'm just biased because I like Clinton better.