Confidential Information Published On The Web

This political "gotcha" game that both major parties play is wrong.  I really get tired of hearing about "the peoples' right to know" stuff they really have no business in.  Now, a website is publishing information about House Staffers personal financial disclosure statements.

For several years, LegiStorm has published salary and expenditure reports that are released regularly by the House and Senate. The reports, released quarterly by the House and semiannually by the Senate, provide detailed information on how much each lawmaker spends, along with the names, titles and salaries of every employee.

In late February, however, LegiStorm expanded the data it provides by putting the staffers' personal financial disclosure forms online. Those documents, which must be filed by senior aides, contain explicit detail on aides' finances -- including bank accounts and investment portfolios -- as well as some home addresses and signatures.

These forms are filed for the express purpose of oversight.  Let the office responsible do their job and keep the information confidential.  The information that was posted before February is legitimately in the public interest.  The personal financial disclosures are not.  Besides putting these people at increased risk of identity theft, it invites irresponsible people to cherry-pick items that are nobody's business and create scandals where none exists.

How many times have people had to defend themselves from conjectures that were "just wondering" or lame attempts to demonstrate hypocrisy?  If there is a blatant conflict-of-interest, the oversight office should be handling that.  But there are too many times where opponents claim, "Well, it might affect the performance of their duties."  Lots of things might do it, but until there is evidence that it's happened, leave it alone.  The politics of personal destruction have been effective because we've allowed them to be.  It's time to draw the line and give people respect until they demonstrate they don't deserve it.

Read the entire article and decide if you think the First Amendment is more important than the Fourth, Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendments.  I think people should have a right to privacy balanced against any infringement upon the rights of others.  Should soldiers have their confidential personal finances available for public review?  How about postal workers?  You can almost make the case for any person to fall under this because we all pay taxes, (hopefully) qualify for Social Security, use Medicare when we qualify... any number of interactions with the government.  It's like using the Commerce Clause so broadly that it allows Congress to dip its fingers into anything it wishes.

Wait, maybe that's not the best example... or maybe it is.

Posted by: Stashiu3 at 18:33:35 | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 438 words, total size 3 kb.