The Obama White House has certainly been better about transparency than George Bush’s, but their commitment seems to be to the idea rather than the spirit of transparency. The selective release of visitor logs only goes so far; they’re incomplete at best. The whole point of requests for release of the logs was to shine light on deals that had been cut, and yet the White House has adamantly refused to provide any information on them.

Lack of transparency with regard to deals cut in secret is one of the factors that has made the public mistrust the administration’s health care bill. Release of those records could do much to allay many fears.

The New York Times is reporting that the drug companies have dramatically jacked up the prices of their medications this year to lock in profits before reform starts. In the last year, the industry has raised the wholesale prices of brand-name prescription drugs by about 9 percent, according to industry analysts. That will add more [...]

While they may or may not be writing their own bill, they need to reassure health care industry stake holders that those deals will be honored in the final bill, even if Baucus can’t get them through is committee. Because the last thing the White House needs right now is stakeholders leaking embarrassing documents because they’re getting hinky at the thought that their deals might go south.