You called dahlink?
Posted on 09/19/2011 4:51:13 AM PDT by Kaslin
As the Obama agenda proves increasingly impotent, Americans have witnessed Obama's czars crash and burn or run for cover over the past thirty months. From Van Jones to Kevin Jennings to Nancy-Ann DeParle to Todd Stern to Ron Bloom, Obama's style of management--bypassing the senate-confirmed agency heads--has failed to yield the results promised to the American people. You would think Obama would give up on the failed idea of using a curious collection of White House czars to manage complex economic and regulatory issues. No way.
Instead, in the American Jobs Act, Obama is proposing a new group of czars as a part of his "jobs" act-- the American Infrastructure Financing Authority (AIFA) czars. President Obama’s newest czars will be given the authority to manage over a trillion dollars of federal funding for roads, bridges, buildings, waterways, dams and other infrastructure.
Here we go again. No doubt, Obama hopes that few legislators or American citizens will read the deadly details buried within the 199 pages of his proposed American Jobs Act that will establish this latest czar-ship, nor understand just how expensive AIFA is going to be.
As with Obama’s other czars, the AIFA czar comes with infrastructure requirements of his own: staff, office space and technology needed to perform the job. Managing what is in reality a trillion dollar budget is going to require a huge new staff that will, essentially represent an entire new federal agency. Of course, nowhere does President Obama tell us why a new czar is required to manage infrastructure projects. More importantly, Obama does not explain why the vast federal bureaucracy now responsible for these activities must be bypassed and a new, redundant agency is built.
Make no mistake: the AIFA Czar position is redundant. All of the infrastructure projects and tasks identified to be performed by Obama’s new Czar are already the responsibilities of the Senate-confirmed heads of Department of Transportation, the U.S. General Services Administration and the Department of Energy.
Some of these tasks are:
· Highways or roads.
· Bridges.
· Mass transit.
· Inland waterways.
· Commercial ports.
· Airports.
· Air traffic control systems.
· Passenger rail, including high-speed rail.
· Freight rail systems.
· Waterwaste treatment facilities.
· Storm water management systems.
· Dams.
· Solid waste disposal facilities.
· Drinking water treatment facilities.
· Levees.
· Open space management systems.
· Pollution reduced energy generation.
· Transmission and distribution.
· Storage.
· Energy efficiency enhancements for buildings, including public and commercial buildings.
What does Obama's decision to create a new agency entity with redundant responsibilities say about his confidence in his own Senate-confirmed appointees that currently lead DoT, DoI,DoE and GSA? And just why is the President proposing to transfer all of the power and contractual authority held by the Secretaries of DoT, DoI, DoE, and the Administrator of GSA to a new White House Czar?
If the President is voting no-confidence in his Senate confirmed appointees, then they should go. But the nation should not have to spend precious taxpayer dollars on yet another, flaky, Obama Administration scheme to create a new White House Czar that is simultaneously able avoid traditional accountability to the American taxpayer, while at the same time seriously politicizing decisions under White House control at a scale never seen before.
We've seen how the president's czars respond to oversight from Congress. When Congress calls with questions and concerns, the White House staffer often hides behind the protection of Executive Privilege. And, the agency head, confirmed by the Senate, is held responsible. Agency heads and Cabinet officials must venture to the Hill and be accountable to Congress. Yet, the actual policy for that program has often been managed by one of the ubiquitous White House czars.
Obama has created yet another accountability challenge. In addition to their ability to hold positions on other Boards of both for-profit and non-profit corporations, AIFA not only has a Czar but also a 7-member Board of Directors, all with decision-making ability. Often, when decision-making responsibility is divided among so many, accountability is reduced and the president can hide behind the skirts of a handpicked group of loyalists. AIFA would essentially be a vastly more powerful NLRB complete with all of the known problems and dangers of a grasping group of unaccountable political cronies.
When problems arise, a finger-pointing frenzy often ensues and the American taxpayer is left holding the bag. Of course, you have to admire Obama’s scheme, as noted in section 346 (on page 116), that offers token reports and evaluation of the success/failure of the Czar and Committee’s spending decision some four years after implementation. In this way, the final report card will only be issued long after all Obama devotees are out of office.
And what about the dedicated, trained, career employees at DoT, DoI, DoE and GSA who have been performing the tasks of contracting, construction proposal and prospectus review and development, government legal review of contracts and leases and repairs and maintenance?
These career professionals possess some of the best technical minds in their respective areas of expertise. The current system is mostly transparent. And, it is only when the White House applies political pressure that these things go badly wrong (Solyndra anyone?).
Instead of respecting and utilizing the expertise of these career professionals, Obama has proposed a system wherein they become pawns to political posturing and every infrastructure decision has the potential to become politicized.
Just at a time when our nation should be talking about cutting costs, Obama has put in motion the wheel of a phantasmagorically, bloated, spending project, that increases, phenomenally, the size of government, duplicates existing governmental functions, escapes honest accountability, all while subordinating all contracting, development, and infrastructure programs to a new White House Czar.
You've got the definitions a bit mixed up there.
concerned about politics wrote:
Citizens own and control businesses = Capitalism.
Citizens own, but government controls businesses = Socialism.
Government owns and controls businesses = Communism.
Citizens own and control businesses = Capitalism.
Citizens own, but government controls businesses = Socialism Fascism.
Government owns and controls businesses = Socialism or Communism.
‘we are going to Socialize, errrrrrr we are going to run your oil companies’ Maxine Waters.
They clearly announced their intentions. If we had an independent Media, O B A M A wouldn’t have been elected.
Wants to be? He is on his way
How do you get someone in such a large group of Bolsheviks to volunteer to be a czar?
DumBO’s idea of management is to double down on bad ideas.
“And just why is the President proposing to transfer all of the power and contractual authority held by the Secretaries of DoT, DoI, DoE, and the Administrator of GSA to a new White House Czar?”
Remember his ‘just as well funded and just as well equipped’ private army proposal?
We’re seeing someone who is trying to be the next Fuhrer.
Once again Obama is wishing on a Tsar.
Because to oppose him is racist.
Tie this man’s hands before he can spen a single dime more of our money!
Our cry should be: Not one dime for czars!
I think if we look at recent headlines, we can draw the dots to what he believes he can run on. Recently articles have appeared which state things like Gaitner did not follow der leaders demands regarding banks; some of his top aides did not give him accurate advice; and when something gets close to him, he tosses someone under the bus (Holder Next or will it be the Energy guy?). So, with so many Czars, he can now blame them for failure. This from a guy who took how long to meet with his cabinet, you know, those who were senate confirmed? He is running the government like he ran the Harvard Law Review. According to some comments by those there, we never saw him, he just showed up from time to time and did nothing. How many present votes in the state legislature?
This guy is a turkey and if the press had not totally supported him from his Senate days, he would be cleaning the cages at the local zoo rather than being in his present affirmative action job.
Obama = Der FUBAR
A better question is where are Brutus and Cassius when they are needed?
More communists......that’ll work!
You called dahlink?
Ah yes, Obama’s advisors have proven themselves very adept at spending tax payer money on special projects like solar energy companies.
And check out what the Department of Labor is about to do:
“You need to act before Wednesday. At a time when the Obama Administration is clamoring to save or create jobs, his Department of Labor is about to sucker punch America’s job creators with an unprecedented regulatory overreach—all to curry more favor with union bosses.
On Wednesday, the public comment period will be closing on a Department of Labor proposal that the majority of America knows nothing about and even fewer understand.
If enacted as drafted, the union cronies within the Department of Labor will require every private-sector employer and service provider (whether or not they ever talk directly to employees) to file financial statements with the Obama Labor Department if the service provider’s services indirectly affect employees’ choice to unionize or not.”
We need to be even MORE vigilant in this last year of an Obama administration.
This is nothing more than a slush fund that completely bypasses Congress and any attempt to make sure these projects are even viable in the first place.
Letting an unelected “Czar” disburse money like this is completely un-Constitutional in my view, and I don’t see any Congress Critter from either House or either Party, especially those running for reelection in 2012, getting onboard with this idea and handing some Czar a blank check.
So that means this whole idea is DOA before Premier Hussein even reads his latest speech.
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