Posted on 01/06/2011 1:56:14 PM PST by Sub-Driver
Republicans introduce bill to eliminate presidential 'czars' By Michael O'Brien - 01/06/11 04:15 PM ET
A group of House Republicans introduced a bill on Wednesday to rein in the various "czars" in the Obama administration.
Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) and 28 other House Republicans introduced legislation to do away with the informal, paid advisers President Obama has employed over the past two years.
The legislation, which was introduced in the last Congress but was not allowed to advance under Democratic control, would do away with the 39 czars Obama has employed during his administration.
The bill defines a czar as "a head of any task force, council, policy office within the Executive Office of the President, or similar office established by or at the direction of the President" who is appointed to a position that would otherwise require Senate confirmation.
Republicans had complained about the president's use of czars to help advance his agenda in Congress. In particular, the GOP had harped about the personal history of Van Jones, the president's czar for "green jobs," over past comments Jones had made about Fox News came to light. Jones eventually resigned.
Another prominent czar over the past year was Carol Browner, the president's energy and environmental adviser. She helped head up efforts in response to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, and the ultimately unsuccessful effort for an energy and climate bill from Congress.
Republicans introduced several bills to eliminate czars in the last Congress, but similar legislation could conceivably advance in the House now that the GOP controls the chamber.
"We havent gotten an indication of an exact timeline for committee action, considering that the bill was just filed yesterday," said Scalise spokesman Stephen Bell. "We hope to have this discussion in the near future as the congressman works to pursue all the bills he has introduced in the 112th Congress."
So, FDR had czars, Bushes had czars...my feeling is that “czars” usurp the authority and activity of legally appointed, Congress approved cabinet members...I say NO czars even with someone else’s money...NO CZARS!! Did I yell loud enough for you to hear me? :)
Arne Duncan is the U.S. Secretary of Education. He overseas the Dept. of Education and was confirmed by the Senate to the post. He is not an "informal, paid adviser" or "head of any task force, council, policy office within the Executive Office of the President established by direction of the President"
Arne Duncan is the U.S. Secretary of Education. He oversees the Dept. of Education and was confirmed by the Senate to the post. He is not an "informal, paid adviser" or "head of any task force, council, policy office within the Executive Office of the President established by direction of the President"
Really, I find the "Czars" to be silly and unconstitutional, not the bill to abolish them.
The Constitution clearly says ALL appointments by the President are made "by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate". The only time he can do otherwise is when there's a vacancy in an existing federal department, and the Senate is in recess (and that temporary appointment is only in effect until they reconvene). There's nothing in in the Constitution saying he can appoint whoever he wants to a "task force" and pay them a salary with taxpayer's money if calls them a "Czar". There's nothing constitutional whatsoever about "Czars" unless we're living in 19th century Russia.
Seems our country got along perfectly well the first 150 years without ANY "Czars", let alone 37 of them.
This is another good one: George W. Bush proposed to quadruple the U.S. debt, which took two centuries to accumulate, in one year. What kind of world was he trying to leave us with? George W. Bush flew over a badly flood-ravaged state, on his way to a swanky fundraiser, without so much as a stopover. Was he not heartless? George W. Bush visited Austria and made reference to the non-existent "Austrian language". Does that not tell you he was ignorant? George W. Bush spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to take his wife to a play in NYC. Do you approve of this? George W. Bush made a joke at the expense of the Special Olympics. Are you not outraged? George W. Bush filled his cabinet and advisers with people who could not keep their income taxes in order. Does that not show his administration was corrupt? George W. Bush was so Spanish illiterate that he referred to "Cinco de Cuatro" in front of the Mexican ambassador on the 5th of May holiday (Cinco de Mayo), and continued to flub it when he tried again. Do you not wince inside in embarrassment at this? George W. Bush burned 9,000 gallons of jet fuel to go plant a single tree Do you not conclude that he was a hypocrite? George W. Bush failed to send relief aid to flood victims throughout the Midwest with more people killed or made homeless than in New Orleans. Should this not be a major ongoing political issue? George W. Bush created the position of 32 Czars who report directly to him, bypassing the House and Senate on much of what is happening in America. Is that the democracy you believe in? George W. Bush ordered the CEO of a major corporation fired, even though he had no authority to do so. Do you not find that tyrannical? George W. Bush gave the Queen of England an iPod containing videos of his speeches Do you not find that embarrassingly narcissistic and tacky? George W. Bush was the first President to need a teleprompter to be able to get through a press conference. Do you not think he was inept and controlled by smarter men behind the scenes? George W. Bush gave Gordon Brown a set of inexpensive and incorrectly formatted DVDs, when Gordon Brown had given him a thoughtful and historically significant gift. Do you not think his administration was an embarrassment? George W. Bush misspelled the word advice. Do you not relentlessly hammer him for it like Dan Quayle and potatoe? George W. Bush's administration ordered Air Force One to fly low over millions of people followed by a jet fighter in downtown Manhattan, causing widespread panic. Was that not idiotic, at best? George W. Bush then proposed to quadruple the debt again within 10 years. Is that not the final straw? Actually, none of the above can be attributed to George W. Bush, but all of it can to Obama's 1st year. But didn't you know any of that already?
A good start if they can bring it off. Now how do we get rid of Dr. Josef Mengele Berwick and any other recess appointment that flies in the face of what is considered sacred in America?
The elimination of the Czars should be done as a cost cutting measure because they duplicate duties that should be performed by existing elective officials.
Homo-erotic czar Kevin Jennings's job is to insure homosexuals get lots of willing young sex partners---Jennings oversees "safe schools" program and is the founder of the pro-homosexual GLSEN organization. Jennings was involved in the 2000 "Fistgate" scandal in which homosexual adults at a GLSEN youth workshop "guided young teens on how to engage in sexual perversions, including the violent gay sex practice known as "fisting."
Obama's vicious anti-male feminist Domestic Violence Czar, Lynn Rosenthal- Director of the National Network to End Domestic Violence, supports male castration.
Fat-happy White House promoting "Health food czar" Sam Kass......a comical move even for czarist Ohaha, who has rewarded dozens of cronies with faked-up titles. Kass was the Obamas' personal Chicago cook is "Senior Policy Adviser for Healthy Food Initiatives." The Chicago chef's rapid ascension from kitchen help to high-level govt employee was kept secret.
Better eat those Hardee's Thickburgers, Chicago hot dogs and Geno's cheese steaks now.......before they're banned.
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Czar funding needs rigorous scrutiny. Czars had to sign off on numerous official documents. Taxpayers demand to know the scope and dimension of deceptive and intentionally ambiguous information contained therein.
RICO (the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) may have been violated by generating fraudulent documents to extort taxpayers and steal govt monies.
Repubs should place a hold on all czar documents. Czars that may have stolen or conveyed or destroyed official govt records get 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. L/E should also look at Computer Trespass--a class C felony if access is made with the intent to commit a crime and/or the violation involves a computer or database maintained by a government agency.
Czars need to prove where they spent govt money. Hope it didn't go up their noses . But judging by all the homos Obama hired, rear entry is more likely (/snix).
Mark Lloyd, a disciple of Saul Alinsky and fan of Hugo Chavez, wants to destroy talk radio and says free speech is a distraction. The new FCC diversity "czar" says Venezuela is an example we should follow.
When Mark Lloyd was appointed July 29 as the chief diversity officer at the Federal Communications Commission, a nation focused on ObamaCare and a deteriorating economy took little notice. But as angry constituents flood town hall meetings and call in to talk radio, a man dedicated to silencing them sits at the right hand of the president. They share a common hero Saul Alinsky who wrote the community organizer's bible, "Rules for Radicals." It speaks of confrontation or, as candidate Obama put it, of "getting in their faces" as a way to obtain power, not from the people or for the people, but over the people.
Lloyd has written that we make too much of the constitutionally guaranteed freedoms of speech and the press for "the purpose of free speech is warped to protect global corporations and block rules that would promote democratic governance." We thought we were democratically governed. We thought we could vote as we choose after a vigorous and open debate. Once the major networks served as information gatekeepers controlling what we saw and heard. Now talk radio, the Internet and cable news have enhanced democracy by promoting the free flow of information and discourse. Lloyd wants to stop all that. (Excerpt) Read more at ibdeditorials.com ...
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Mark Lloyd is a Martin Luther King, Jr. Visiting Scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he teaches communications policy and conducts research on the relationship between communications policy and strong democratic communities. Most recently, he served as the Executive Director of the Civil Rights Forum on Communications Policy, a nonprofit, non-partisan project he co-founded to bring civil rights principles and advocacy to the communications policy debate.
Previously, Mr. Lloyd worked as General Counsel to the Benton Foundation, and as a communications attorney at Dow, Lohnes & Albertson in Washington, D.C. representing both commercial and non-commercial companies. He also has nearly twenty years of experience as a print and broadcast journalist, including work as a reporter and producer at NBC and CNN, and is the recipient of several awards including an Emmy and a Cine Golden Eagle. He has served as board member of dozens of national and local organizations, including the Independent Television Service and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund.
He has also served as a consultant to the Clinton White House, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Soros' Open Society Institute and the Smithsonian Institution. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan and his law degree from the Georgetown University Law Center.
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