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[EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

Republicans and some Democrats are complaining that there are too many 
so-called czars in the Obama administration, and now the Senate Health 
committee even is proposing a health care czar to oversee the overhaul 
of the system.

By some accounts, Obama has nearly three dozen czars in his 
administration, managing everything from closing the Guantanamo Bay 
detention facility to ending the genocide in Darfur.

"The accumulation of power by White House staff can threaten the 
Constitutional system of checks and balances," Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W. 
Va., wrote in a letter to Obama.

Rep. Jack Kington, R-Ga., promised legislation to address what he's call 
a "parallel government" that he says diminishes the Senate advice and 
consent role.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, says she doesn't see a constitutional issue 
but she expressed concern that the president may be breaking his promise 
of transparency.

"By creating these czars that are insulated from accountability, whose 
work is not transparent, he's moving in exactly the opposite direction," 
she said.

Since some of the positions don't require confirmation hearings, Collins 
said, Congress loses some of its oversight ability. But a third of the 
czar positions do require Senate confirmation.

And Stephen Hess of the Brookings Institution says few of the remaining 
czars would ignore a congressional invitation to testify.

"I don't see this in the slightest as a constitutional issue but as I do 
see it as a continuation as wonderful tensions that are built into the 
Constitution between the executive and the legislature," he said.

Hess described the opposition to the czars as political concerns of 
Republicans worried that a powerful president with a congressional 
majority will further erode their minority status.

But Collins argues there are also issues of accountability.

"Who's in charge of health care?" she asked. "Is it the secretary of 
Health and Human Services? Or is the White House czar? Who is in charge 
of environmental and energy issues?

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/07/15/obamas-czars-draw-criticism-sides-political-aisle/
--
"Never expect magic from no where"  Baringo (Kenyan) working motto
http://erthnsky.blogspot.com/
EarthNSky Farm, NW Georgia, USA