This House Would Force All Governments to Become Totally Transparent

Pro bears the burden of proof in supporting his resolution. Most of his responses amount to an assertion that whatever the problem is, he just doesn't consider it be a problem. He should provide references in each case to historical precedent or other evidence to support his claims. Pro denies that there is any such thing as right to privacy. This contradicts, for example, the Supreme Court assertion of a right to privacy as a basis for the Roe v. Wade decision. The resolution advocates overthrowing democracy by force in order to enforce authoritarian rule. Pro must therefore show why democracy is wrong and the force of authoritarian rule is right. 1. The costs of various government benefits are known by category. The question is whether the public has a right to know the individual medical treatments. With all health records set to be digitized, this would include detailed information about abortions, fertility treatment, erectile dysfunction, hormone deficiencies, birth defects, genetic predispositions to illnesses, and so forth. Congress has seen fit to protect all of this information. Pro must show why it would be beneficial to override the will of the people to make it public. 2. Gag orders have been found necessary by the Courts to protect the rights of a defendant to an unprejudiced jury pool, and to protect the reputations of innocent parties before they are cleared. "Because the Supreme Court has faulted judges on several occasions for failing to control out-of-court statements by lawyers, trial judges are likely to limit lawyers' comments in highly publicized cases. Police who investigated a crime may be barred from commenting on evidence as well." http://www.rcfp.org... Pro must show why the right to a fair trial, as determined by the Supreme Court, should be overruled. 3. Pro merely denied that revealing sealed settlements causes harm, without evidence or argument. "Attorneys note that while the courts have long protected children in divorce cases by sealing records, they are now doing the same for companies, treating trade secrets, assets, stock values and executive salaries as valuable, sensitive information that needs special protection." http://www.law.com... 4. The legislatures of virtually every state have seen the wisdom in sealing juvenile records in certain cases. http://ezinearticles.com... Pro asserts that juveniles should not commit crimes. That is not relevant to the issue of whether minor crimes in youth should be allowed to be expunged from the records. Pro gives no reason why democracy should not prevail on this matter. 5. Trade secrets are disclosed to the government as part of the bidding on government contracts. Suppose a company has methods for improving a communications satellite. If their secrets must be revealed, they may choose not to bid on a government contract to avoid disclosure. Revealing the secrets guarantees that the government will gets uncompetitive technology. "From the perspective of a contractor, the most critical aspect of [intellectual property] is protection of competitive advantage from disclosure to its competitors." http://en.wikipedia.org... 6. All business are subject to regulatory action, every single one. The government investigates to see if all of their regulations are being obeyed, regardless of whether any infraction has occurred. 7. Executive privilege has been upheld by the Supreme Court for the reason stated. It isn't speculation. 8. All members of the UN come from countries. The US secretly tapped a Soviet undersea cable during the cold War. That would have to be revealed to the UN for judgment as to whether revealing it would be harmful. The secret would then immediately be revealed. Reviewing all secrets will require tens of thousands of "impartial" staff.