Opaque Transparency

Most Americans remember that president Obama promised that he would have the "most transparent" administration in history.  While no one today would claim that Obama kept his promise, we are now getting to the point where the Obama administration could easily be called the least transparent in history.  The latest example of this attitude was on display yesterday at a hearing in Congress where the new IRS commissioner was testifying.  The IRS has received a subpoena to produce all of the email sent or received by Lois Lerner, the woman who refused to answer questions about her role in targeting conservative groups on the grounds that her answers would incriminate her.  The commissioner refused to say that the agency would produce the emails but he did state that it "would take years" to comply with the subpoena.

Think about that position.  Congress has formally demanded production of information in the possession of the federal government.  The response from the administration is to claim that it cannot comply for "years".  Anyone with an email account knows that all of those documents could be downloaded onto a flash drive in a few minutes.  Even if the email is stored in multiple accounts, it could be downloaded in at most a day's worth of effort by one person.  Without a doubt, the answer from the IRS commissioner makes clear that what is happening is a cover up by the IRS.  The agency is stonewalling the request from Congress.  There is no transparency here.