Is Barack Obama the King of Kings? (Part Two)

This is part two of the series on Czars. In this part we will look at the history of czars in this country, the reaction from more Congressional leaders, and look at more of these czars and who they are. First let’s look at the past appointment of czars.

In all fairness to our current President, he is not the first to appoint czars. Presidents from Roosevelt to George W. Bush have appointed so-called "czars". Reagan appointed a couple during eight years in office. Clinton appointed eight or nine in his two terms. George W. Bush appointed a dozen in two terms as President. They were usually appointed to head up special task forces or to work across agency lines to accelerate necessary action. We all know how ridiculously slow our government moves things through all the red tape. So, the purpose of appointing czars is to expedite things or at least give a sense of urgency to certain issues.

Everything our government has done for the last year, and that includes the end of the Bush administration, has been rushed and given extreme urgency, even passing bills without reading them. After all, it seems everything in this country is in crisis; much of which has been created by the same leaders who are now rushing their solutions through the legislature. It is hard to fix problems with the same minds that created them.

Our founding fathers designed our government with checks and balances so fast, irrational changes would be hard to implement without serious debate and discussion. These checks and balances have always kept the balance of power in check in Washington. Regardless of which party is in control, history has proven that the system works best when one party controls the White House and the other party controls Congress. Of course right now one party has complete control of the White House, the Senate, and the House of Representatives. That is what is creating much of the urgency in Congress right now. They have waited for many years to be able to push their agenda through with no resistance.

Of course they claim it is all being done with bipartisanship. Eight votes on the Cap and Tax Bill from across the aisle is not bipartisanship. What was the urgency of the bailout last fall? We were told it had to happen NOW or we were doomed. The TARP bailout will go down in history as the biggest money grab conspiracy ever. The urgency was the impending change of administrations. This was Bush’s last opportunity to funnel money to take care of his crony Hank Paulson, and all his buddies at Goldman Sachs. It also gave the Democrats a final negative banner to hang over Bush’s presidency. Although the Democrats were responsible for passing it, the blame goes to Bush. It happened under his watch.

There is no question this country is in a Recession and is inevitably headed into a Depression. That is all we have heard for the last year, "It’s the worst since the Great Depression." Yet, now that the economy is becoming more and more the responsibility of our current President, we are told by our Vice-President that "We underestimated it." To which our President responded with, "We didn’t have correct information." How can the economy be worse than what you have told us for the last year?

How is appointing all these czars going to fix it? Is that why we need so many of them? Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), the longest-serving Democratic senator, has been a very vocal critic of President Obama’s appointment of White House "czars" to oversee federal policy. Byrd says these executive positions amount to a power grab by the executive branch. In a recent letter to Obama, Byrd complained about his decision to create White House offices on health reform, urban affairs policy, and energy and climate change. Byrd said such positions "can threaten the Constitutional system of checks and balances. At the worst, White House staffs have taken direction and control of programmatic areas that are the statutory responsibility of Senate-confirmed officials." We are supposed to have a government of the people, by the people and for the people. The idea of unelected and unvetted czars running everything from car companies to the California water supply violates the spirit if not the letter of the law.

What does this mean? It means that Obama is appointing czars to oversee and run sections of government designed by our Constitution to be handled by the legislative branch. This is undermining our Constitution and usurping the authority of Congress, and the people of this country.

In only six months in office, President Obama has appointed almost three dozen czars to his administration, dealing with issues that range from drugs to the automotive industry. Is a "domestic violence" czar or an "urban affairs" czar really necessary? Are all of these czars appointments vital to our future? Of course they aren’t. The creation of these positions may be designed to expose some major problems with our government bureaucracy. Will that make things better or worse? Will it make things easier to get done or harder? Here is a list of Obama’s current and prospective Czar positions:

1.Technology Czar: Aneesh Chopra. 2. Drug Czar: Gil Kerlikowske. 3. Copyright Czar: Not appointed yet. 4. Energy Czar: Carol M. Browner, 5. Car Czar: Ed Montgomery. 6. Terrorism/WMD Czar: Gary Samore.  7. Health Care Czar: Nancy-Ann DeParle.8. Education Czar: Not appointed yet.  9. Economic Czar: Paul Volcker. 10. Mortgage Czar: Not appointed yet. 11. Urban Affairs/Housing Czar: Adolfo Carrion.  12. Guantanomo closure Czar: Danny Fried. 13. Great lakes Czar: Cameron Davis. 14. Stimulus accountability attorney). 17. Intelligence Czar: Admiral Dennis Blair.  18. Regulatory Czar: Cass Sunstein. 19. Pay Czar: Kenneth Feinberg 20. Iran Czar: Not appointed yet.  21. Tarp Czar: Herb Allison.  22. Middle-East peace Czar: George Mitchell.  23. Science Czar: John Holdren.  24. Green jobs Czar: Van Jones. 25. Afghanistan Czar: Richard Holbrooke. 26. Sudan Czar: J. Scott Gration. 27. Mideast policy Czar: Dennis Ross.  28. Information Czar: Vivek Kundra. 29. AIDS Czar: Jeffrey Crowley. 30. Faith-based Czar: Joshua Dubois.  31. Climate Czar: Todd Stern. 

Each of these czars earn six figure salaries and have staffs and expense accounts paid for by the American people. Many of them are now overlooking departments that are already handled by Congress or a Cabinet member. Is their existence really necessary? Is our government that incompetent? Will this improve efficiency or slow things down even further? Is Obama creating a buffer between him and Congress? If so, is that for more accountability and "transparency"? Or is this a power move to set up a shadow government and team of kings and rulers to dictate the policies and agenda of Obama?

We deserve answers to these questions, since we are the ones paying for it. Stay tuned as we dig a little deeper into who some of these appointees are and their backgrounds. We need to watch this closely as we move forward through the next three and a half years of this administration’s term in office. The results will definitely determine our combined futures.

Jeff Senters