The czars of the U.S.S.A.

In his inaugural address of 1801, Thomas Jefferson near-prophetically described our current government saying, “Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.”

President Obama has appointed about 30 czars, claimed advisors who report to him and do his bidding; none appearing before the United States Senate with its constitutional role of advice and consent.

Is the president subverting the United States Constitution, subverting the powers of the United States Congress and its constitutional role of advice and consent?

Has the president decided that neither Congress nor “We The People” can be trusted?  And, is Congress complicit, failing to challenge the president as he sets up what appears to be his own private parallel government?

Thomas Jefferson, knowing the dangers of leaders with unchecked power, cautioned us saying, “Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves, therefore, are its only safe depositories.”

Robert Byrd, the longest currently serving United States Senator and a member of the president’s own party, believes the president is playing loose with the United States Constitution.  In February, the senator wrote to the president, explaining that the president’s czars are a threat to “the constitutional system of checks and balances” because the “oversight of federal agencies is the responsibility of officials who are approved by the Senate,” not a private government of presidential “advisors” who answer only to the president.

In part, Article II of the United States Constitution says, “(The president) shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls. . . and all other Officers of the United States….”

The president argues that his czars are nothing more than “advisors,” really no different from the few czars prior presidents had.  Beyond sheer numbers, are the president’s czars, with staffs and significant power, really just advisors?

Is the president correct in his claim?  The New York Times reported the president’s “compensation czar” will “oversee executive pay at firms that have taken federal bailout money.  (The czar) will have broad discretion to set salaries and bonuses for their five most senior executives and their 20 most highly paid employees.”  Does this sound like an advisor or does it sound like an obedient knave in the new U.S.S.A. — the United Socialist States of America?

The president even confused his own White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs. Mr. Gibbs could not accurately articulate the roles of the Health and Human Services secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, and the president’s health czar, Nancy-Ann DeParle.  He initially said the czar would be in charge of health care reform but then had to back off, admitting there would be a role for the secretary. Who is in charge, who has the power?  I suspect it is the person who does not have to answer to Congress, only to the president.

Is the president’s czar government reducing the Constitution to an outdated series of suggestions?  Is the president creating the very government we fought the Revolutionary War to leave?

Unfortunately, it appears that the president has a near 30 member private “Cabinet” at his beck and call, distracting and confusing Congress and the American people with a shell game of massive spending, no one knowing where the “pea” is.

Thomas Jefferson’s believed in and trusted “We The People” saying, “I have no fear, but that the result of our experiment will be, that men may be trusted to govern themselves without a master.  Could the contrary of this be proved, I should conclude either that there is no God, or that He is a malevolent being.”

We need to maintain our constitutional government of “We the People,” allowing neither angels nor kings nor czars to rule us.

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