Friday, June 5, 2009

What is this... Russia?

From the Wall Street Journal today: "White House Set to Appoint a Pay Czar"

Is it just me or have the czars been coming fast and furious under this administration?

The Pay Czar
The Cyber Czar
The Border Czar
The Car Czar
The Green Czar
The Health Czar
The Climate Czar
The Energy Czar
The AIDS czar
The Urban Czar
The Great Lakes Cleanup Czar
The IT Czar
The Faith-Based Czar
The Stimulus Accountability Czar
The Non-Proliferation Czar
The TARP Czar
The Terrorism Czar
The Guantanamo Closure Czar
The Regulatory Czar
... and so on

Seriously. The list above isn't a joke.

Is is me, or are there already actual departments in the government to handle most of these things, such as the Federal Reserve Board, the EPA and the Department of Homeland Security? And where there aren't, are they things that the Federal government even really needs to have its hands in? The Great Lakes Cleanup Czar? The Faith Based Czar? What a joke!

What's also telling is that even many Democrats have a problem with the czar system because the czars have so much power and are not confirmed by nor are accountable to the Congress, which is designed to be the policy and law-making body in the United States.

What all the czars tell me is that:
1. President Obama is a busy-body who has no problem putting his hands all over other people's pies - even if the pies happen to be members of his own family in Congress. Or worse - he's a sly manipulator who is incrementally and systematically destroying our entire system of government from the inside.
2. He wants power concentrated at the executive branch so as not to have to mess with all those pesky checks and balances such as Congress or governmental agencies and so he doesn't have to be as accountable to them
3. There's a constitutional crisis coming as Congress finds itself having less and less actual authority over policy matters that are instead imposed by just a few people.

The very reason we have an executive, a legislative and a judicial branch of government is so that power is not concentrated in the hands of too few. What should be on the minds of the public and the congress is this: such a system is dangerous. It can tip to easily to authoritarian rule. We're on the verge of losing our representative republic by placing such enormous power in the hands of so few.

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