Does Congress not see that they are gradually being marginalized, their power taken and amassed within the executive branch via "czars"?

The whole concept of "czars," presidential appointees that are not under congressional authority but report solely to the president, needs to end. I realize it's been done before, for years actually, but never on the scale of what Obama has done. At last count he now has over 30 "czars," many of whom are duplicating (and likely replacing from a practical standpoint) official cabinet positions. Others are entirely new positions with new and far-reaching power, power not granted to them by Congress and not approved by Congress.

There is no vetting process (at least not one open to scrutiny by Congress or we the people) and no accountability other than to the president. Transparency anyone?

It's a blatant circumvention of the constitutional separation of powers and it needs to stop. To me, it appears to be not only unconstitutional but a clear attempt to consolidate power in the executive branch while marginalizing the power of Congress. As Senator Byrd said in a recent letter to Obama, "The accumulation of power by White House staff can threaten the Constitutional system of checks and balances." Indeed.

Perhaps some in Congress are waking up to what's happening.

Taxpayers for Common Sense has a running list of the czars with additional detail on each one.

Here's the current list:

1. Afghanistan czar
2. AIDS czar
3. Border czar
4. CA Water czar
5. Car czar
6. Climate czar
7. Domestic violence czar
8. Drug czar
9. Economic czar
10. Energy czar
11. Faith-based czar
12. Great Lakes czar
13. Green jobs czar
14. Guantanamo closure czar
15. Health czar
16. Information czar
17. Intelligence czar
18. Mideast peace czar
19. Mideast policy czar
20. Pay czar
21. Regulatory czar
22. Science czar
23. Stimulus accountability czar
24. Sudan czar
25. TARP czar
26. TARP oversight czar
27. Technology czar
28. Terrorism czar (umm, shouldn't that be the man-caused disaster czar?)
29. Urban affairs czar
30. Weapons czar
31. WMD/Terrorism czar

and two not appointed yet:

32. Copyright czar
33. Cyberspace czar

33 and counting...

Posted on Monday, July 20, 2009