Sixteen-year-old Nick Rubin has created a free app intended to show the main sources of US politicians’ funding. The app was 
designed to allow users to scroll over the names of all members of Congress on any webpage to see a list of the top ten industries from which each receives money.
Rubin’s stated goal was to promote transparency, which Rubin said he believed would help fix the problem of people not understanding the role of money in politics. He hoped that internet users would use it daily while reading about politics online. “For example, if you’re reading a piece on Congress votes for energy policy,” Rubin said of his app, “you might see that a sponsor has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the oil and gas industry. I like to say that Greenhouse allows people to see the money story behind the news story.”
Rubin also hoped the app would help voters make election decisions. “Once people are informed, they will reject elected officials who are motived by money instead of principles.”
The app provides 2012 data from the last full election cycle when scrolling over a politician’s name, but clicking the politician’s name links to 2014 data from OpenSecrets.org.
“Greenhouse provides access to the most up-to-date 2014 data on OpenSecrets.org by clicking on the name of the member of Congress in the popups,” Rubin told The Speaker. “Greenhouse popups currently use the totals from the last full election cycle (generally 2011-12 for Representatives and 2007-12 for Senators) because it is the most complete and 2014 data to date underrepresents the amounts of campaign dollars in an election cycle. Data in the popup will be updated later in this election cycle.”
Rubin told us that he was motivated to pursue this line of interest after giving a presentation on corporate personhood in 7th grade. “What this did was introduce me to the concepts of campaign finance and the issue of money-in-government I wasn’t as interested in corporate personhood, and may have been too young to truly understand it. But the campaign finance issue grabbed my eye because it really made me angry. I remember asking my dad (a few times) ‘How is this legal?'”
By Day Blakely Donaldson