This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Monday, April 27th, 2009. I'm Caleb Brown.

When it comes to following through on a key campaign pledge to post bills online five days before he signs them.

President Obama, so far, has a worse record than the Washington Nationals.

Jim Harper, Director of Information Policy Studies at the Cato Institute,

says in these early days of the Obama

presidency it's still possible for the president to win out and in doing so send a

signal to Congress and federal agencies on the importance of being transparent.

So far, the President has signed 11 bills into law and giving him the benefit of the

doubt, he has only once posted a bill for five days before signing it.

Ironically, interestingly, two bills he is held for five days before signing but not posted on White House.gov.

So twice he's stolen defeat from the jaws of victory on that campaign promise.

What's the practical impact of having the president have a piece of legislation sit for five days without taking any action on it?

A lot of people assume that a bill that has left Congress is a fait accompli and that the president holding it

for five days would have essentially no effect. But members of Congress are very, very

keen political risk balancers.

And knowing that the president was holding to a rule that bills would sit for five days before

he signed them, available to the public, members of Congress would recognize that they put themselves at political risk with parochial amendments, last-minute earmarks, and such.

And you would see those things drop away if the president were to hold to such a rule, it would also help spur Congress

to behave better itself, be more transparent and be more methodical in its processes.

So President Obama holding to that promise would be good for the nation's lawmaking.

Just to be clear, what are the technical hurdles to President Obama making this a reality.

There are a couple of simple questions that have to be overcome.

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