GOP Plans to Take Down Obama's Czars

By Douglas V. Gibbs

"Czars" in the Executive Branch are unconstitutional. Every President that has used them has acted in a manner against the Constitution. Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution reads: “He (the President) shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consults, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose appointments are not herein provided for, and which shall be established by law; but the Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments.”

As with the rest of Article II, there are not many things the Executive Branch can do without the consent of the Senate, or Congress as a whole. And then, even actions the President can pursue without their consent, are subject to approval by the Congress in other ways - such as the ability to "wage war." Though the Commander in Chief can wage war without a declaration, Congress can stop such a waging of war by defunding it (a power the Democrats had available to them during the Iraq War, but they never decided to use that ability, which leaves me questioning their rhetoric against the war - they could have stopped it any time they wanted, but they preferred to just complain about it, without taking any action).

The Constitution is very specific about appointments to the Executive Branch. Appointments to the President's Cabinet, and other positions, must be vetted and approved for their positions by the Senate. The Czars are appointed without consent of the Senate, and without any oversight by the Congress. The Czars have significant authority, and therefore are subject to a vote of the U.S. Senate.

Obama’s Czars not only have significant authority, but their influence varies greatly based on Obama's decisions in regards to their responsibilities, which allows these officers to function in the dark, and at the President's pleasure only.

The Czars under the Obama administration have seemingly unlimited powers, and their powers go unchecked by any other part of government. Allowing this kind of power to be seized by one of the branches of the federal government is dangerous not only to our freedoms, but to the stability of our republic as a whole.

What Obama is doing with the appointment of so many Czars is a systematic destruction of the American Form of Government, making the Democrat's actions, in a very literal sense, anti-American. Of course, during Obama's presidential campaign, he did say he planned to fundamentally change America, and by creating a shadow government through the Executive Branch filled with people having undefined powers, he is literally making the Congress, and the authorities of the States, irrelevant.

By not being approved by the Senate, as provided by the U.S. Constitution, the people occupying the positions called "czars" do not exist under the Constitutional bounds of checks and balances. There are no checks regarding these people. If there is any oversight whatsoever, it is coming from the Oval Office, giving the President of the United States unprecedented power, much like one would expect of a king or a totalitarian dictator, without any constraint coming from the People, the States, or the U.S. Congress.

These nearly three dozen "czars" represent a direct threat to the authority of the Congress, and are in position to be used without any outside control if a crisis were to arise, giving the President complete control regardless of the rule of law.

Many of the Republicans have recognized Obama's use of his czars in a manner that circumvents the Congress' authorities. The White House has been using the czars to enforce regulatory powers by the Executive Branch not allowed by the Constitution, and the GOP is poised to call Obama on his unconstitutional actions. The czars, being appointed without Senate confirmation or congressional oversight, must be eliminated.

The Republicans will be in control of the House of Representatives in January, and are poised to gain the same kind of control in the Senate in 2012. With the GOP in control of the House, they plan to go after the funding of the czars. After all, according to the Constitution, funding begins at the House of Representatives. With no money to pay the czars, their positions should be coming to an end.

There have been no relevant congressional oversight committees that have exercised any oversight over the czars and other administration regulatory efforts during the last two years, but the Republicans plan to change that immediately.

Republican Congressman Fred Upton out of Michigan says, "The presidents’ czars need to justify why they were appointed and why they continue to have jobs that frequently overlap work done by previously existing government officials. . . we have a duty to oversee all of the federal spending in each of our committees’ jurisdictions. We have a $1.5 trillion deficit this year and last year, and one of our policy goals will be that we have a lower deficit and less spending a year from now."

Eliminating the czars will be one of the major first steps in getting the out-of-control spending in Washington under control.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

Republicans plan January takedowns of Obama's 'czars' - The Daily Caller