Bonus Politburo Post

The last two days we have talked about how the American political class was apparently morphing into the way the Soviet Union used to be governed with a Central Committee and an all powerful Politburo, both entities of which were accountable to only themselves. I recently received an email from my good friend, Jeanne Ferguson of Tampa, and it reminded me that there really is a third link between the Soviet/Russian government and the current political situation in the United States. Consider some of the current President's staff:

• Afghanistan Czar
• Aids Czar
• Auto Recovery Czar
• Border Czar
• Car Czar
• Central Region Czar
• Climate Czar
• Domestic Violence Czar
• Drug Czar
• Economic Czar
• Energy and Environment Czar
• Faith based Czar
• Government Performance Czar
• Great Lakes Czar
• Green Jobs Czar
• Guantanamo Closure Czar
• Health Czar
• Information Czar
• Intelligence Czar
• Mideast Czar
• Pay Czar
• Regulatory Czar
• Science Czar
• Stimulus Accountability Czar
• Sudan Czar
• TARP Czar
• Technology Czar
• Urban Affairs Czar
• Weapons Czar
• Weapons Of Mass Destruction Czar

Before my commentary, lets find out what the dictionary gives as the definition of a czar:

1. A male monarch or emperor, especially one of the emperors who ruled Russia until the revolution of 1917.
2. A person having great power; an autocrat.
3. An appointed official having special powers to regulate or supervise an activity.

And, what is the dictionary definition of an autocrat:

-ruler with absolute authority: a ruler who holds unlimited power and is answerable to no other person, bossy person: somebody who dominates others

A few points to make:

• Why would Obama name these people "czars"? Throughout history, czars were usually associated with nasty stuff and reputations. Ivan the Terrible was a Czar. Czar Nicholas ruled Russia with a brutal, iron hand until overthrown. Ask any educated person and I doubt that Czar would elicit a positive reaction. Either very, very bad PR or blatant arrogance.
• Why do we even need all of these people? Are they not just another layer of wasteful, redundant layer of bureaucracy? Couldn't the State Department handle the work of the Sudan Czar and the Middle East Czar? Couldn't the CIA handle the responsibilities of the Intelligence Czar? Couldn't the Treasury Department handle both the TARP and the Stimulus Accountability jobs? Even if you needed a few czars, couldn't they have doubled up and let one czar handle both the Auto Recovery Czar and the Car Czar's duties?
• At a time when Federal government spending is out of control, adding wasteful layers of costs and management shows either a disdain for taxpayer dollars (a lot of these czars are making over $170,000 a year in salary not counting their office expenses and their staff expenses which likely translates into millions and millions of taxpayer dollars), an inability to properly delegate and manage personnel and resources in existing government organizations, or a more subtle dynamic is at work. This dynamic strikes at the heart of freedom and is the really scary aspect of the czar concept. Our government is built on a series of checks and balances where the executive branch executes the duties of government which are funded, reviewed, and guided by Congress. Congressional members are accountable to voters and if they do not do their jobs to the voters' satisfaction, theoretically they will be voted out of office. The czars are accountable to the President, not the voters of the country. By consolidating power and information under his rule, Obama is subtly and scarily shifting power away from Congress, and the voters, unto himself. Just look at the definition of czar and autocrat, whose words are definitely not freedom friendly: absolute authority, powerful, answerable to no other person, special powers, regulate, dominates, supervise. These are scary words if you are an American.
• The first part of the definition also holds true for Obama's czars, "a male monarch or emperor." Of the 32 czars listed above, at least 26 of them are men judging by their first names. So much for equality in the Obama administration.

Even if you think that I am a little paranoid about Obama consolidating power, I do not think most people would argue that 32 separate fiefdoms under White House control, when we are spending trillions of dollars to run other, currently functioning departments in the Federal government is a tremendous waste of money. Ваше здоровье!