President Obama Appoints American Czars

Are American Czars Really Needed?

Sep 26, 2009

The President has taken to appointing czars. Examining the current cabinet structure reveals existing positions that are overlapped with the appointment of czars.

The problem is that these czar positions overlap positions that are currently held by existing government agencies. To date there are 31 active czars in different capacities, with one remaining to be approved by the senate. A complete list of the czar positions is available courtesy of Glenn Beck’s website. The term czar is a fabrication of the media as each of these positions has a specific title. The title of czar is not recognized in any official capacity.

Of course it is understood that these czar agencies will have to have offices, staff, and the other customary expenses that are incurred when operating such an entity. According to Newt Gingrich in an interview with Greta Van Susteren, the average cost of a federal agency is between 5 and 20 million per year. Multiplying the number of active czars, which is 31, by an average of 12.5 million dollars per year yields an average annual cost of 387.5 million dollars. This is money spent to duplicate positions that already in existence.

A Brief History of American Czars

The first czar titled position dates back to Franklin Roosevelt’s administration according to Wikipedia.com. The number of such positions remained minimal (an average of about 4) for each administration until George W. Bush’s terms as President. Bush had 31 czar positions. Out of those 16 were for less than one year, and are not commonly counted as true appointed positions. Of the 16 remaining 14 had to have senate approval. President Obama has 31 functioning czar positions with only 7 needing senate confirmations.

Appointing czars is a way to circumvent the checks and balances system in the US Government. Czars are appointed by way of executive order by the President of the United States. That executive order spells out the nature of the appointment, its tenure, who the czar will report to, their salary, etc. By using an executive order, nothing in the appointment can be questioned. More importantly, these czars can carry out the President’s ideas on how each of these agencies should be run. Information that is collected is not public knowledge, and reported directly to the President or a designated member of his cabinet.

This is raising some ire in Congress. In an article from “thehill.com” dated 9/9/09, “Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) on Wednesday called for President Obama's ‘czars,’ or appointed high-level advisers, to testify before Congress about their ‘authority and responsibilities’ in the executive branch.” The article goes on to state that members of Congress are concerned that this method of appointing high level advisers will side step the confirmation process for the President’s cabinet that is required by the Constitution.

Increasing the National Deficit

In the current economic environment where the 2012 deficit is projected to be upwards of 1.28 trillion dollars, according to politico.com, it becomes increasingly important to cut excessive government spending. Having these appointed positions overlap established agency positions is a waste of taxpayer’s money. This is clearly displayed on the aforementioned web GlenBeck.com. For instance, the AIDS Czar’s job could easily be done by the department of Health and Human Services; the Border Czar’s job could be handled by the Customs and Border Protection Agency; the Central Region Czar’s responsibilities could fall under the State Department; the Climate Czar’s job could be covered by the Environmental Protection Agency; etc. It is this kind of replication that could be avoided in order to make government more efficient.

Counterpoint:

Not everyone close to the issue agrees that the czar issue is even an issue at all. Stephen Hess is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute. He has been an adviser to Presidents Ford and Carter, and his white house experience dates back to the Eisenhower administration. Hess has also published the book Organizing the Presidency.

When asked if the czar positions are a real controversy in a question and answer session with Politics Daily's Patricia Murphy Hess stated, "If you deconstruct the so-called czars, you'll see that a lot of them are simply misnamed by whoever chooses to do the naming. The news media, they like czars. If the Obama White House has played that game at all, they have done themselves a disservice. Obviously those who disagree with the administration have grabbed onto this."

As the czar controversy, or non-controversy, continues to make headlines, voters will have to ask themselves if this is something worthy of the nightly news, or is it just political fodder.

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