In an era when cutting federal spending is an absolute necessity, killing two birds – or in this case nine – with one stone is a pretty good start. From Politico:
The House voted Thursday to dethrone nine White House “czars.”
Republicans successfully added an amendment to the continuing resolution that would leave President Barack Obama’s senior advisers on policy issues including health care, energy and others out of a job.
The vote was 249-179.
Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) offered the amendment that blocks funding for various policy advisers to combat what he called “a very disturbing proliferation of czars” under Obama.
“These unappointed, unaccountable people who are literally running a shadow government, heading up these little fiefdoms that nobody can really seem to identify where they are or what they’re doing,” Scalise said Thursday. “But we do know that they’re wielding vast amounts of power.”
The jobs on the chopping block: White House-appointed advisers on health care, energy and climate, green jobs, urban affairs, the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention center, oversight of TARP executive compensation, diversity at the Federal Communications Commission and the auto industry manufacturing policy.
Read the whole thing.
Democrats spent the Bush years braying about the expansion of executive power and a “disregard for the Constitution’s separation of powers.” But Obama has taken unaccountability to a whole new level of unconstitutionality. The Carol Browner fiasco, detailed in this article, and the evidentiary fraud committed by Elena Kagen while working in the Obama White House merely prove the point, and reinforce the need for more direct congressional oversight. Defunding the “czars” is a good first step.
sayanythingblog.com
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