My Reaction: The Czar Administration
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
The two lines above were two of the charges the United States of America listed in their declaration freeing them from the rule of monarchy. This document was of course, the Declaration of Independence.
With Obama’s announcement of Kenneth Feinberg as his “Pay Czar,” the total count of “Czars” has grown to somewhere from 16 to 20+ in the administration. These individuals are not just “advisors” as one Washington expert had yesterday, but rather have budgets and regulatory authority. They are actually making and enforcing laws in this nation.
When the United States ratified the Constitution, we set up a system of checks and balances that assured that no one branch of our government would become too powerful, a way to protect the citizens from the government, and to prevent the tyranny which ruled over the states when they were colonies. The founding fathers knew that government had the ability to grow into an oppressive burden on its people, and set up a system so that each branch could keep the other two in check. This would keep the legislative branch making the laws, the executive enforcing them, and the legislative ruling on behalf of the law. The three would do their job and have the ability to limit the power of the other two.
A cornerstone of this system was that the President would have a Cabinet, who were the heads of Offices of the United States, with regulatory power to enforce the law, and that the members of his Cabinet would be confirmed under Advice and Consent of the Senate. When George Washington took office, he had four members, Secretaries of State, War, Treasury, and the Attorney General. As our nation and it’s issues grew in scope and complexity, so has the cabinet to the United States. The current cabinet is comprised of 15 members. Again, these appointments are looked at by elected representatives of the United States (the Senate) before they take office, and can be called in by those elected representatives for hearings. It is the check on the President’s advisors who hold regulatory ability.
However, these “Czars” are elected by no one; they are confirmed by no one, and answer to no one: except for the President. In effect he has created a silo of power in our federal government. Now this would not be an issue if they truly were just “advisors” to the President. For example, if the President just liked having them in the Roosevelt Room for when he needed advice, fine. No. These czars are given the ability to write and enforce law. Take our new Pay Czar. He is allowed to legislate (decide what the limit for executive is) and then enforce it (penalize companies who exceed this). This destroys the limits of power and checks and balances.
If the issues of this country have exceeded the capacity of the Cabinet, fine. However, give an overhaul to make up of the Cabinet, rather than just ignore the system the Constitution has put into place. Especially, when there are Health Care and Car Czars, when we already have Health and Human Services and Commerce Secretaries, two positions with nearly identical scopes.
The President’s Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel said, “Rule One: Never let a crisis go to waste. They are opportunities to do big things.” Well let’s not use the crisis facing this nation to do an end-around our founding documents. Do not use it to create “New Offices” that “harass our people.” Do not use this time to “abolish our most valuable Law” in the Constitution thus, “altering fundamentally the Forms of Government.” Rather let this time be a chance to champion the laws and ideals we were founded upon, and overhaul the Cabinet for the 21st Century. This nation became great because of those laws and ideals; we need to stay committed to them if we wish to remain so.
