US CZARs

There are currently 31 “active” Czars, most appointed by President Obama. Those Czars appointed by the President report directly to him and there is no independent oversight as to who these Czars are, what they are doing, or who they may represent. Following is a list of the President’s Czars as compiled by Taxpayers for Common Sense. The list shows the person’s name, Czar Title, actual name, and is sorted by date appointed:

Paul Volcker - Economic Czar - Chairman of the Economic Recovery Advisory Board - 11/26/2008;
Carol Browner - Energy Czar - Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change - 12/16/2008;
Elizabeth Warren - TARP Oversight Czar - Chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel for the $700B Bailout Fund - 12/16/2008;
Dennis Blair - Intelligence Czar - Director of National Intelligence - 12/18/2008;
John Holdren - Science Czar - Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Co-Chair of the President’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology - 12/18/2008;
John Brennan - Terrorism Czar - Deputy National Security Adviser for Homeland Security - 1/8/2009;
George Mitchell - Mideast Peace Czar - Special Envoy to the Middle East - 1/22/2009;
Todd Stern - Climate Czar - Special Envoy for Climate Change - 1/26/2009
Gary Samore - WMD/Terrorism Czar - Coordinator for the Prevention of WMD Proliferation and Terrorism - 1/29/2009;
Joshua DuBois - Faith-based Czar - Director of the Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships - 2/6/2009;
Richard Holbrooke - Afghanistan Czar - Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan - 2/7/2009;
Gil Kerlikowske - Drug Czar - Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy - 2/11/2009;
Adolfo Carrion, Jr. - Urban Affairs Czar - Director of the White House Office of Urban Affairs - 2/20/2009;
Earl Devaney - Stimulus Accountability Czar - Chair of the Recovery Act Transparency and Accountability Board - 2/24/2009;
Jeffrey Crowley - AIDS Czar - Director of the Office of National AIDS Policy - 2/27/2009;
Nancy-Ann DeParle - Health Czar - Director of the White House Office of Health Reform - 3/2/2009;
Vivek Kundra - Information Czar - Federal Chief Information Officer - 3/5/2009;
Van Jones - Green Jobs Czar - Special Adviser for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation at the White House Council on Environmental Quality - 3/10/2009;
J. Scott Gration - Sudan Czar - Special Envoy to Sudan - 3/17/2009;
Ashton Carter - Weapons Czar - Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics - 3/26/2009;
Ed Montgomery - Car Czar - Director of Recovery for Auto Communities and Workers - 3/30/2009;
Herb Allison - TARP Czar - Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability - 4/12/2009;
Alan Bersin - Border Czar - Asst Secretary for International Affairs & Special Rep for Border Affairs - 4/16/2009;
Aneesh Chopra - Technology Czar - Chief Technology Officer - 4/18/2009;
Cass Sunstein - Regulatory Czar - Director of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs - 5/12/2009;
Danny Fried - Guantanamo Closure Czar - Special envoy to oversee the closure of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay - 5/13/2009;
Cameron Davis - Great Lakes Czar - Special advisor to the U.S. EPA overseeing its Great Lakes restoration plan - 6/4/2009;
Kenneth Feinberg - Pay Czar - Special Master on executive pay - 6/10/2009;
Dennis Ross - Mideast Policy Czar - Special Adviser for the Persian Gulf and Southwest Asia - Different, unnamed position now - 6/16/2009;
Lynn Rosenthal - Domestic Violence Czar - Adviser on violence against women - 6/26/2009; and
David Hayes - CA Water Czar - Deputy Interior Secretary - 6/29/2009.

Each of these Czars has a salary between $158,500 and $172,200 (as best as I can determine – I cannot find all of them), but let’s just use $160,000 as an average. The taxpayer’s are on the hook for a total of $4,960,000 (Four Million Nine Hundred Sixty Thousand dollars). Here are the problems with most of these Czars:
(1) They are appointed by the President with no Congressional oversight (no independent review of their background or qualifications);
(2) In most cases, there is no record (at least public record) of their job description, so we don’t know what their job entails and therefore no way to measure success or failure;
(3) In many cases, their presumed role is a duplicate of a role already being done (supposedly) by another Government employee;
(4) There is no record of how many persons work for each Czar and are paid for by taxpayers;
(5) Since they report directly to the President and therefore part of the Executive Branch, they do not have to testify before Congress;
(6) Because the Czars belong to the Executive Branch, they are able to circumvent the “checks and balances” placed in the U.S. Constitution.

Just as an exercise, let’s assume that each Czar has a staff of five with an average salary of $50,000. Five times 31 Czars times $50,000 equals $7,750,000 (Seven Million Seven Hundred and Fifty Thousand dollars). If we add the two figures together, we get $12,710,000 (Twelve Million Seven Hundred Ten Thousand dollars)! With the US Government spending Trillions of dollars, this doesn’t seem like much but shouldn’t we, the people know how our tax dollars are being spent?

In later posts, I will examine each of these Czars in detail.