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Obama's Regulatory Czar has resigned: Cass Sunstein, administrator of the powerful Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the White House Office of Management and Budget, will return later this month to his previous post at Harvard Law School, the White House will announce Friday. Obama said of Sunstein: “For the last three and a half years, Cass Sunstein has helped drive a series of historic accomplishments on behalf of the American people." Accomplishments? During the last 3+ years Obama and his "regulatory czar" have issued 106 new major regulations (as of March 2012). ...at a cost of more than...

— One Saturday last fall, President Obama interrupted a White House strategy meeting to raise an issue not on the agenda. He declared, aides recalled, that the administration needed to more aggressively use executive power to govern in the face of Congressional obstructionism. -snip- But increasingly in recent months, the administration has been seeking ways to act without Congress. Branding its unilateral efforts “We Can’t Wait,” a slogan that aides said Mr. Obama coined at that strategy meeting, the White House has rolled out dozens of new policies — on creating jobs for veterans, preventing drug shortages, raising fuel economy...

New Czars Exercise Unprecedented Control over Government Policies and Programs While Operating Under a “Veil of Secrecy” Judicial Watch, the public interest organization that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today released “ President Obama’s Czarspdf,” a special report on the President’s appointing of “policy advisors,” many of whom enjoy positions of power and authority in the administration and yet have not been subjected to vetting and confirmation by the U.S. Senate. Judicial Watch’s extensive investigation exhaustively documents these czar appointments and details the control these czars exercise over government operations. From the report’s introduction: “This Judicial Watch Special Report analyzes...

WASHINGTON, July 6 (UPI) -- Youngstown, Ohio, Mayor Jay Williams will lead the Obama administration's efforts to help communities dependent on the auto industry recover, officials said. Beginning Aug. 8, Williams will be executive director of the Labor Department's Office of Recovery for Auto Communities and Workers, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said Wednesday in a release.

3 Years After Bitter-People-Clinging-to-Guns Speech, Obama Creates ‘Rural Council’ Thursday, June 09, 2011 By Fred Lucas Barack Obama in Iowa Barack Obama, during the 2008 presidential campaign, stumps in Adel, Iowa. (AP photo/Charlie Niebergall) (CNSNews.com) - President Barack Obama, who during the 2008 campaign famously referred to small town Americans as bitter people clinging to guns and religion, today issued an executive order establishing a White House Rural Council. The council will be chaired by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, a former Democratic governor of Iowa. Iowa—and other northern Midwest states—have been key swing states in recent presidential elections. “Strong rural...

Republicans vote to defund Obama's 'czars' By Andrew Restuccia - 02/17/11 07:01 PM ET The House GOP approved an amendment to a government-spending bill that would block funding for the Obama administration’s so-called policy "czars,” appointed advisers to the president that have been much-criticized by Republicans. The vote was 249-171. The amendment, offered by Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), specifically targets Obama’s “climate czar” by blocking funding for the assistant to the president for energy and climate change, the position's official title. The amendment would block funding for the 'czars' through the end of the fiscal year, when the spending bill...

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...

President Barack Obama’s Medicare chief, rationing advocate Donald Berwick, says he is happy with ObamaCare in terms of how it redistributes wealth similar to the British health care system.Berwick is the man Obama appointed to implement ObamaCare and head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.He recently claimed he has backed away from some of his pro-rationing positions, but CNS News caught up with him at speech he delivered Friday at a conference sponsored by the National Committee for Quality Assurance.“Do you think the new health care law–President Obama’s health care law–does enough and a sufficient job to redistribute...

My column today shines light on the autocratic agenda of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. Readers of Culture of Corruption already know all about this Chicago crony porker’s ties to Rahm Emanuel, Richard Daley, Rod Blagojevich, and Tony Rezko. For a trenchant look at LaHood’s penchant for government coercion and central planning, see chapter one of Terry Jeffrey’s Control Freaks. Ray LaHood: Obama’s Power-Mad Cell Phone Czar By Michelle Malkin • November 19, 2010 09:40 AM He’s got hang-ups. My column today shines light on the autocratic agenda of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. Readers of Culture of Corruption already know all...

Republicans will have President Barack Obama’s czars and his use of regulatory powers to circumvent congressional inaction on issues such as cap and trade in GOP crosshairs if the party takes control in January. Since taking office, Obama has named more than 30 czars (though the exact number is hard to pin down) without Senate confirmation and congressional oversight, and together they hold power over everything from the environment and bank bailouts to the auto industry. The president’s practice of naming czars has garnered criticism from members of his own party, such as the late West Virginia Democrat Sen. Robert...

Barack Obama’s Science Czar John Holdren has refused to answer questions time and time again regarding his previous works and writings. Once again, Holdren ran from CNS News Reporter (and one of our coworkers) Nicholas Ballasy when confronted and told him to get out of his elevator. Ballasy reports: John P. Holdren, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, said “have a nice day” and otherwise declined to comment on Tuesday when asked about a statement he made that worldwide redistribution of wealth is “absolutely essential” in order to provide all human beings with a decent...

n a video interview this week, White House Office of Science and Technology Director John P. Holdren told CNSNews.com that he would use the “free market economy” to implement the “massive campaign” he advocated along with Paul Ehrlich to “de-develop the United States.” Thursday, September 16, 2010 By Nicholas Ballasy John P. Holdren President Barack Obama confers with his top science and technology adviser, John P. Holdren. (White House photo) In a video interview this week, White House Office of Science and Technology Director John P. Holdren told CNSNews.com that he would use the “free market economy” to implement the...

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“Special adviser” is the new czar. Facing stiff opposition and pointed questions about the left-wing, anti-business advocate that he wanted to nominate as chairman of the new federal consumer financial protection bureau, President Obama once again circumvented the Senate’ constitutional advice and consent role and installed Elizabeth Warren with a wave of his hand: Consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren will help set up a powerful new watchdog agency policing the financial marketplace on behalf of ordinary borrowers and savers, a Democratic official said Wednesday. But it’s unclear whether the Harvard University law professor will end up running the Consumer Financial Protection...

You've seen the reports about Van Jones, President Obama's onetime "green jobs czar," and Cass Sunstein, his equally volatile "regulatory czar," and Fox News show host Glenn Beck has put together a list of dozens of such appointees. Now here's the newest White House promotion: "Health food czar" Sam Kass. "In a comical move even for a czar-happy president who has rewarded dozens of cronies with distinguished titles, the White House has named the Obamas' personal Chicago cook as 'Senior Policy Adviser for Healthy Food Initiatives,'" reports the Washington government watchdog Judicial Watch. "It's no joke, even though it sounds...

You think there are problems now with the mainstream media? Just wait. Columbia University President Lee Bollinger joins the drumbeat of those proposing fixes that are guaranteed to make the MSM much, much worse — and he wants to do it with your tax dollars.In a July 14th op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, Bollinger argues that the time has come to rescue the declining fortunes of newspapers and broadcast news with “enhanced public funding for journalism.” He envisions the future of American journalism as a “mixed system,” part public, part private. Otherwise, worries Bollinger, Americans might not get the news...

Health Care: The president recess-appoints a fan of rationing and Britain's National Health Service to direct one-third of American health care. Why does the administration want his views hidden from scrutiny? 'The decision is not whether or not we will ration care — the decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open." That's what Dr. Donald Berwick, President Obama's nominee to head the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, told a National Institutes of Health publication a year ago, when he was just president and CEO of the Institute for Health Care Improvement. Such views were to be...

Here is the Obama Disaster Management Theory: In times of crisis, you can never have enough unelected, unvetted political appointees hanging around. Nearly two months after the BP oil spill, the White House will now name an oil-spill-restoration point person to oversee recovery efforts in the Gulf of Mexico. Too many czars have already spoiled this administration’s credibility. Might as well pile on another. The new oil-spill czar is not to be mistaken for the old oil-spill czar, U.S. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, who was officially designated the “National Incident Commander of the Unified Command for the Deepwater Horizon...

President Barack Obama, in his televised speech to the nation Tuesday, will announce the creation of an oil recovery “czar” to oversee progress in siphoning crude from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, his chief spokesman said. Speaking on ABC television’s “Good Morning America” program, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said the position is envisioned as “somebody that will be in charge of a recovery plan, putting a recovery plan together...when we get past the cleanup and response phase of this disaster.”

Dr. Donald Berwick of the Harvard Medical School does not like free enterprise, but he does like rationing. Two years ago, in England, he delivered a talk celebrating the 60th birthday of Great Britain's National Health Service, the bureaucracy that runs that nation's socialized medical system. He apparently entertained some fear that day that the Brits might turn back to free enterprise. So, in his address (as reprinted in the July 26, 2008, edition of the British Medical Journal), and as reported this week by Matt Cover of CNSNews.com, he offered British socialists some words of advice. "Please," he told...