This was, after all, one of the most detested aspects of Communist culture in the former Soviet bloc. But in the final analysis, it must also be said that a government that remains within its proper Constitutional limits, that focuses on its proper Constitutional priorities, and that does not attempt to meddle in the daily lives and routine affairs of its citizens, should not be feared if it also attempts to keep some things secret. The growing fear of government secrecy is linked directly to the growth of government power and intrusiveness. The Commission report does not address this problem per se, but I believe this implication is clear to those not already biased in favor of big government. The Cost Factor It will cost many millions to declassify rapidly and release the huge store of currently classified material.
Every government expenditure ought to have a cost-benefit.
But it is difficult to justify an extraordinary expenditure that goes beyond the costs of routine declassification as a benefit to the taxpayer. But I am hard pressed to see how such an expenditure will benefit taxpayers as a whole. To be sure, the amount of classified material in government hands is enormous, too enormous. Some of it is more than 25 years old, and presumably much can be released without jeopardizing the nation s security or exposing intelligence sources and methods. But President Clinton s 1995 Executive Order 12958 requires the automatic declassification of all documents over 25 years old by the year 2000.