Showing posts with label czars. Show all posts
Showing posts with label czars. Show all posts
Thursday, February 12, 2026
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Lawmaker Proposes Bill Banning Czar Funding
Title: Lawmaker Proposes Bill Banning Czar Funding
Published: Thu, 16 Jul 2009
Description: Rep. Jack Kingston on why he wants President Obama's 34 Czars to go through Congress
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Automatically Generated Transcript (may not be 100% accurate)
" Obama currently has 32. Account of thirty -- are working under most draw salaries and have a staff Republican representative Jack Kingston of Georgia wants all of this to go through congress first and he joins us now -- what are your concerns here. Well article -- in section two of the United States constitution says that the the president must seek advice and consent of the US senate before naming somebody took cabinet post -- position of higher authority on policy. Clearly these stores and cars have high authority and influence on. Policy and even many of them directly report to Rahm Emanuel the chief of staff -- president himself and so weaker -- He needs to go through the Senate and have a betting kind of policy so we know who these people aren't what their background is and why. 31 year old for example can turn around automobile business well live."
" Let's let's take you as Steve Brenner is an example of course he just stepped down as car czar. Given the various conflicts of interest a lot of people raised about his background of some of the companies he bailed out -- cars are. Would he ever have been approved when he had passed the test through the Senate."
" I don't think he would have and I think that is very important understand that there was that a major pension question in terms of some corruption. That he was involved and and people would want to know about them probably what would have happened he would have withdrawn his name to begin with as well not like. Not paying your nanny tax you know that the filter just the threat of going in front of the US senate could."
" Committee often gets people's and I don't think they'll want that job. Again you think about 31 year old guy with no background in the automobile business but he's going to turn around Detroit. He had no spark plug from the lug nuts but he's going to be the whiz kid did turn for the month down around and I just don't believe enough that the US senate the constitution -- famine follows. Put this and therefore recent for the checks and balances."
" You know certain of the art and on the other side of the island says hey look at SARS have been around and David I've been reporting this sense that the -- days. And they had no budget authority what do you say to that argument."
" Well here's what I've been that on the average salaries seems to be about 172000. Dollars. They will be getting staff they have offices. They have their own budgets the accountability. That the stimulus accountability -- spent eighteen million dollars. Designing the web page for the stimulus program. That that's why we on the Appropriations Committee have to have these people have fun of us so that we can talk about them but. You know Ronald Reagan believe overnight -- period of time had something like. Three bizarre president Obama's up to 34 already had that right he will probably reach. Three or 400 stars by the end of a four year period and we believe. That they should not only come before this senate. To be thoroughly vetted so that we can know their expertise in the background but also come before the house appropriators so that we can look at their budgets and state. If there's been an eighteen million dollars on web site and."
Published: Thu, 16 Jul 2009
Description: Rep. Jack Kingston on why he wants President Obama's 34 Czars to go through Congress
-
Automatically Generated Transcript (may not be 100% accurate)
" Obama currently has 32. Account of thirty -- are working under most draw salaries and have a staff Republican representative Jack Kingston of Georgia wants all of this to go through congress first and he joins us now -- what are your concerns here. Well article -- in section two of the United States constitution says that the the president must seek advice and consent of the US senate before naming somebody took cabinet post -- position of higher authority on policy. Clearly these stores and cars have high authority and influence on. Policy and even many of them directly report to Rahm Emanuel the chief of staff -- president himself and so weaker -- He needs to go through the Senate and have a betting kind of policy so we know who these people aren't what their background is and why. 31 year old for example can turn around automobile business well live."
" Let's let's take you as Steve Brenner is an example of course he just stepped down as car czar. Given the various conflicts of interest a lot of people raised about his background of some of the companies he bailed out -- cars are. Would he ever have been approved when he had passed the test through the Senate."
" I don't think he would have and I think that is very important understand that there was that a major pension question in terms of some corruption. That he was involved and and people would want to know about them probably what would have happened he would have withdrawn his name to begin with as well not like. Not paying your nanny tax you know that the filter just the threat of going in front of the US senate could."
" Committee often gets people's and I don't think they'll want that job. Again you think about 31 year old guy with no background in the automobile business but he's going to turn around Detroit. He had no spark plug from the lug nuts but he's going to be the whiz kid did turn for the month down around and I just don't believe enough that the US senate the constitution -- famine follows. Put this and therefore recent for the checks and balances."
" You know certain of the art and on the other side of the island says hey look at SARS have been around and David I've been reporting this sense that the -- days. And they had no budget authority what do you say to that argument."
" Well here's what I've been that on the average salaries seems to be about 172000. Dollars. They will be getting staff they have offices. They have their own budgets the accountability. That the stimulus accountability -- spent eighteen million dollars. Designing the web page for the stimulus program. That that's why we on the Appropriations Committee have to have these people have fun of us so that we can talk about them but. You know Ronald Reagan believe overnight -- period of time had something like. Three bizarre president Obama's up to 34 already had that right he will probably reach. Three or 400 stars by the end of a four year period and we believe. That they should not only come before this senate. To be thoroughly vetted so that we can know their expertise in the background but also come before the house appropriators so that we can look at their budgets and state. If there's been an eighteen million dollars on web site and."
Source: http://www.foxbusiness.com/search-results/m/25312259/lawmaker-proposes-bill-banning-czar-funding.htm
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Obama's 32 Czars
By Eric CantorThursday, July 30, 2009
"The biggest problems that we're facing right now have to do with George Bush trying to bring more and more power into the executive branch and not go through Congress at all. And that's what I intend to reverse when I'm president of the United States." -- Sen. Barack Obama, March 31, 2008
To say President Obama failed to follow through on this promise is an understatement. By appointing a virtual army of "czars" -- each wholly unaccountable to Congress yet tasked with spearheading major policy efforts for the White House -- in his first six months, the president has embarked on an end-run around the legislative branch of historic proportions.
To be sure, the appointment of a few special officers to play a constructive role in a given administration is nothing new. What is new is the elevation of so many czars, with so much authority on endless policy fronts. Vesting such broad authority in the hands of people not subjected to Senate confirmation and congressional oversight poses a grave threat to our system of checks and balances.
At last count, there were at least 32 active czars that we knew of, meaning the current administration has more czars than Imperial Russia.
The administration has a Mideast peace czar (not to be confused with the Mideast policy czar), a Sudan czar and a Guantanamo closure czar. Then there's the green jobs czar, sometimes in conflict with the energy czar, who talks to the technology czar, who sometimes crosses paths with the urban affairs czar. We mustn't forget the Great Lakes czar or the WMD czar, who no doubt works hand in hand with the terrorism czar. The stimulus accountability czar is going through a rough time right now, as is the TARP czar -- but thankfully they have to answer to the government performance czar. And seemingly everyone falls under the auspices of the information czar. In a government full of duplicative bureaucracies, adding more layers with overlapping responsibilities hardly seems the way to go.
Even Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd (W.Va.) was fearful enough to pen a letter to President Obama in February highlighting his concerns with the administration's tactics. The Constitution mandates that the Senate confirm Cabinet-level department heads and other appointees in positions of authority -- known as "principal officers." This gives Congress -- elected by the people -- the power to compel executive decision-makers to testify and be held accountable by someone other than the president. It also ensures that key appointees cannot claim executive privilege when subpoenaed to come before Congress.
As we move forward, proper oversight of the growing lineup of czars is essential. From orchestrating bailouts to making industrial policies to moving toward government-run national health care, Washington seems intent on sailing into uncharted waters -- and the czars are often steering the ship.
The car czar, who stepped down this month amid controversy over his former firm's role in a scandal, had been managing government's recent takeover of a huge swath of the domestic auto industry and making decisions for auto companies. The pay czar -- also known in White House circles as the "special master for compensation" -- has the power to reject or accept any current and future compensation for the top 100 earners at companies that received, in some cases under pressure, money from the Troubled Assets Relief Program. In the coming months he will decide the fate of $235 million in pending retention bonuses at AIG. And the health czar, meanwhile, has become as influential as perhaps anyone in the Obama administration, spearheading White House negotiations with doctors, hospitals and other health providers. She will play a key role in determining which medicines, treatments and cures are deemed necessary for the public.
The point here is not that President Obama's reliance on czars is illegal (although it does raise significant, unresolved constitutional issues). Nor is it that these czars are bad people. It's that we have not been able to vet them, and that we have no idea what they're doing. It's that candidate Obama made a pledge to keep Congress in the light. Yet less than six months after his inauguration, the president appears intent to keep Congress more and more in the dark. Dozens of czars at a time.
The writer, a Republican from Virginia, is the House minority whip.
Source:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/29/AR2009072902624.html
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