The House Of Czars; No Transparency, No Accountability, No Oversight
These endless appointments of czars who answer to nobody but the President raise some constitutional issues. The power of appointments is clearly defined in our constitution.
Article II – The Executive Branch, Section 2 – Civilian Power over Military, Cabinet, Pardon Power, Appointments
He 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 Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise 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.
The Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution carefully and deliberately to deny absolute power to emanate from one person. That was why they required that no principal officers could exercise any power unless the U.S. Senate decided to confirm them. The Founding Fathers were specifically blocking the type of centralized power that President Obama is currently exerting.Ken Klukoswki at Townhall.com wrote in June about the perilous path that these czar appointments can lead to.
…The Constitution commands that government officers with significant authority (called âprincipal officersâ) are nominated by the president but then are subject to a confirmation vote by the U.S. Senate. And principal officers include not only cabinet-level department heads, but go five levels deep in executive appointments, to include assistant secretaries and deputy undersecretaries.
Inferior officers are appointed either by the president, cabinet-level officers, or the courts. But even then, the Constitution specifies that only Congress can authorize the making of such appointments. For these inferior officers, only Congress can create their offices, and also specify who appoints them. And such officers are still answerable to Congress. They are subject to subpoena to testify before Congress, and Congress holds the power of the purse by making annual appropriations for their division or program.
White House officials, by contrast, cannot be compelled to appear before Congress and testify. They are alter-egos of the president himself, and as an agent of the Executive Office of the President they are entirely removed from Congress, and not answerable to Congress in any way. That was why during the Bush administration White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten, Senior Advisor Karl Rove, and Counsel Harriet Miers could not be compelled to testify to Congress when President Bush invoked executive privilege (a battle they may well have won if they pressed their case all the way to the Supreme Court). Senior presidential aides advise the president alone, and the separation of powers forbids congressional interference in that relationship.
But thatâs the problem with these czars. The president can have any advisors he wants, people who privately advise him or meet with others on his behalf, but have little or no actual authority to exert government power on anyone. These czars, however, are directly dictating policy, impacting millions of lives in the way that few assistant secretaries or deputy undersecretaries do…
…Fortunately, there is a remedy. Any person on the receiving end of an order from any of these czars has standing to challenge their constitutionality in court. Any person whose pay is deemed excessive by Kenneth Feinberg, or affected by any other czar, could file a federal suit asserting that the order is an unconstitutional exercise of government power, and have a court both invalidate the order and hold that the position itself doesnât legally exist. Then everyone could just ignore these czars, because they would simply be private citizens, without the authority to order any of us to tie our shoes.Let the lawsuits begin.
August 21, 2009
Tags: Barack Obama, Constitution, Corruption, Czars, Democrat Congress, Socialism Posted in: Politics 
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Obamacare Preview: VA Pushes Death Over Treatment
The firestorm that end of life consultations and cost benefit analysis applied to health care decisions that has plagued the Obama Administration’s attempts at reform, may be headed for more trouble. When labeled as “death panels”, the administration went into overdrive in an attempt to ease the fears that many seniors had about government bureaucrats deciding when it was time for them to go. Well, those fears just may have some merit.
The Obama Administration and former general Eric Shinsheki has ordered the VA to reinstate a program called “Your life, Your Choices”.  First developed under the Clinton Administration in 1997, the program was discontinued under the Bush administration over the moral and ethical questions it raised. Produced for the VA’s National Center for Ethics in Health Care, the 52-page end-of-life planning document was authored by Dr. Robert Pearlman, chief of ethics evaluation for the center, a man who in 1996 advocated for physician-assisted suicide in Vacco v. Quill before the U.S. Supreme Court and is known for his support of health-care rationing. As the Wall Street Journal reports, this program is an end of life sales pitch aimed at a vulnerable audience.
âYour Life, Your Choicesâ presents end-of-life choices in a way aimed at steering users toward predetermined conclusions, much like a political âpush poll.â For example, a worksheet on page 21 lists various scenarios and asks users to then decide whether their own life would be ânot worth living.â
The circumstances listed include ones common among the elderly and disabled: living in a nursing home, being in a wheelchair and not being able to âshake the blues.â There is a section which provocatively asks, âHave you ever heard anyone say, âIf Iâm a vegetable, pull the plugâ?â There also are guilt-inducing scenarios such as âI can no longer contribute to my familyâs well being,â âI am a severe financial burden on my familyâ and that the vetâs situation âcauses severe emotional burden for my family.â
When the government can steer vulnerable individuals to conclude for themselves that life is not worth living, who needs a death panel?
One can only imagine a soldier surviving the war in Iraq and returning without all of his limbs only to encounter a veteranâs health-care system that seems intent on his surrender.
I was not surprised to learn that the VA panel of experts that sought to update âYour Life, Your Choicesâ between 2007-2008 did not include any representatives of faith groups or disability rights advocates. And as you might guess, only one organization was listed in the new version as a resource on advance directives: the Hemlock Society (now euphemistically known as âCompassion and Choicesâ).
The spin by the Obama adminstration regarding their end of life counseling is that it would be voluntary. Not so at the VA, which has ordered all of its primary care physicians to provide end of life counseling to all of its patient without regard for the patient’s wishes. These men and women have voluntarily stepped into harms way prepared to give their lives for their country. Now we have the VA asking them to give their lives to save a few bucks.
Ed Morrissey sums it up well,
Perhaps some of the âdeath panelsâ rhetoric was overblown, but this is downright disgusting. The Bush administration was correct in suspending the use of these tactics to push vets into refusing treatment, and the government these men and women defended should be ashamed to have put that in their hands in the first place. If Obama wants to argue that he wonât bend the cost curve downward at the expense of treatment, maybe he should start by stopping that very policy at the VA â one of the existing âpublic plansâ that need reform much more than the overall health-care system.
August 20, 2009
Tags: Barack Obama, Eric Shinsheki, Health Care, Health Insurance, National Healthcare, Universal Health Care, VA, VA Hospitals Posted in: Military, Politics No Comments
Iconology; What Goes Around Comes Around
Bill Whittle at PJTV explains how the Obama machine has used the campaign logo as an icon. They have even replaced the symbol of the office which Obama holds with this icon. But, Obama’s opponents may get the last laugh. h/t to Michael Graham at The Natural Truth.
August 19, 2009
Tags: Barack Obama, Community Organizer, Democrats, Election 2008, Media, Media Bias, Republicans Posted in: Politics 2 Comments
There’s Something Fishy In This Story
Nothing about this situation passes the sniff test. The firm that David Axelrod solely owned until going to work for Pesident Obama, is raking in the dough to provide advertising for Obamacare. Although Axelrod no longer is employed by his former firm, they still owe him $2 million dollars to be paid in installments.
Timothy Burger of Bloomberg.com reports:
Two firms that received $343.3 million to handle advertising for Barack Obamaâs White House run last year have profited from his top priority as president by taking on his push for health-care overhaul.One is AKPD Message and Media, the Chicago-based firm headed by David Axelrod until he left last Dec. 31 to serve as a senior adviser to the president. Axelrod was Obamaâs top campaign strategist and is now helping sell the health-care plan. The other firm is Washington-based GMMB Campaign Group, where partner Jim Margolis was also an Obama strategist.
This year, AKPD and GMMB received $12 million in advertising business from Healthy Economy Now, a coalition that includes the Washington-based Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America, known as PhRMA, that is seeking to build support for a health-care overhaul, said the coalitionâs spokesman, Jeremy Van Ess…
…Axelrod was president and sole shareholder of AKPD from 1985 until he sold his interest after Obamaâs victory, government records show. The firm owes Axelrod $2 million, which itâs due to pay in installments beginning Dec. 31. Axelrodâs son, Michael, still works there. He didnât return a phone call. The firmâs Web site continues to feature David Axelrodâs work on the Obama campaign…
…At the White House, Axelrodâs role in the health-care debate ranges from Sunday talk show appearances to meetings with House and Senate lawmakers.
Van Ess said HEN is now dormant. PhRMA and three other members of HEN, plus the Washington-based Federation of American Hospitals, have created another coalition, Americans for Stable Quality Care, which last week announced a new $12 million ad campaign to promote health-care overhaul. GMMB and AKPD are also working on the new coalitionâs ads.
Here we are just eight months into the Obama Administrations tenure in the White House and the stench of corruption fills the air. This past week alone we have this uncovered about Axelrod and George Soros cashing in on Obama’s decision to lend Petrobas $2 million of our tax dollars for offshore drilling in Brazil. Michelle Malkin had better get moving on the sequel to her latest book, Culture of Corruption.
August 19, 2009
Tags: Barack Obama, Corruption, David Axelrod, heal, Health Care, Health Insurance, National Healthcare, PHARMA, Radical Left, Socialism, Universal Health Care Posted in: Politics No Comments
Obama Pushes Offshore Drilling
A truly brilliant path towards energy independence. I’m sure glad that while President Obama continues to search for ways to bankrupt our nation, he finds the time to spend more of our tax dollars on programs that have little benefit to the taxpayers that are funding them.
The U.S. is going to lend billions of dollars to Brazil’s state-owned oil company, Petrobras, to finance exploration of the huge offshore discovery in Brazil’s Tupi oil field in the Santos Basin near Rio de Janeiro. Brazil’s planning minister confirmed that White House National Security Adviser James Jones met this month with Brazilian officials to talk about the loan.
The U.S. Export-Import Bank tells us it has issued a “preliminary commitment” letter to Petrobras in the amount of $2 billion and has discussed with Brazil the possibility of increasing that amount. Ex-Im Bank says it has not decided whether the money will come in the form of a direct loan or loan guarantees. Either way, this corporate foreign aid may strike some readers as odd, given that the U.S. Treasury seems desperate for cash and Petrobras is one of the largest corporations in the Americas.
This come on top of the Congress introducing legislation to permanently ban drilling in ANWR, the Obama Administration backing a nuclear energy program for the UAE, banning offshore drilling here off the U.S. coast, scrapping oil and gas leases in Utah, stopping the nuclear waste storage facility at Yucca Mountain (effectively killing future nuclear plant construction), and forming a joint task force to help Pakistan’s energy crisis. h/t Gateway Pundit
And a new twist has emerged in this story as reported by Ed Morrissey at Hot Air.
Who else besides Obama has taken an interest in Petrobras? Hmmmmmm:
His New York-based hedge-fund firm, Soros Fund Management LLC, sold 22 million U.S.-listed common shares of Petrobras, as the Brazilian oil company is known, according to a filing today with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Soros bought 5.8 million of the companyâs U.S.-traded preferred shares.
Soros is taking advantage of the spread between the two types of U.S.-listed Petrobras shares, said Luis Maizel, president of LM Capital Group LLC, which manages about $4 billion. The common shares were 21 percent more expensive than preferred today, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. âŚ
Petrobras preferred shares have also a 10 percent additional dividend, said William Landers, a senior portfolio manager for Latin America at Blackrock Inc.
âGiven that there will most likely never be a change in control in the company, I see no reason to pay a higher price for the common shares.â Brazilâs government controls Petrobras and has a majority stake of voting shares.
This story is from last Friday. Is it a coincidence that Obama backer George Soros repositioned himself in Petrobras to get dividends just a few days before Obama committed $2 billion in loans and guarantees for Petrobrasâ offshore operations?
August 18, 2009
Tags: Barack Obama, Democrat Congress, Energy, Energy Independence, Energy Policy, National Debt, WSJ Posted in: Energy, Politics No Comments
A Doctor’s Response To Obama’s NYT Op-Ed
h/t American Thinker
Mr. President, I just read your op-ed in the New York Times. You must either be incredibly ignorant (e.g., pediatricians performing tonsillectomies, surgeons being paid $50,000 for an amputation), or else you believe that Americans are incredibly stupid.
You justify a hasty and massive healthcare “reform” to save money, by spending an additional trillion dollars. You would fix a “broken” and broke Medicare system by adding another 47 million beneficiaries to government programs while arguing this will reduce overall costs.I’ve itemized your inaccurate claims, with my comments in italics.
You assert that your healthcare reform will:
- Force insurance companies to insure pre-existing conditions. That’s like allowing bettors to wait till after the race has been run, to place their bets. That won’t cut costs.
- Eliminate lifetime limits on coverage. Unlimited lifetime coverages must increase premiums to pay for them and will raise total costs.
- Require insurance companies to pay for routine examinations, preventive care, and screening tests like mammograms and colonoscopies. Once again, how can you be insured against a sure thing? The only way my company can pay for a colonoscopy is to add enough onto the premium to pay for it, plus their overhead.
- Make Medicare more efficient, so tax dollars won’t enrich insurance companies. Insurance companies do not derive income from Medicare, because it is a federal program. Incidentally, its costs per patient have increased much faster than private insurance.
- Cut hundreds of billions of dollars in waste and inefficiency in federal health programs like Medicare and Medicaid. These programs have been in effect over 40 years — and I’ve seen the waste and inefficiency for most of that interval. Did you just find out about the waste and inefficiency now, and why hasn’t something already been done about it?
You claim that:
- “If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.” But didn’t you just imply this week that Medicare Advantage subsidizes insurance companies and should be eliminated to save money?
- “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.” But large numbers of doctors have indicated that they will quit or retire if this plan is enacted
- “You will not be waiting in any lines.” Maybe you won’t but we will. Your plan will add up to 47 million new insureds, with no increase in the supply of primary care physicians that are already in short supply.
We physicians live with our healthcare system, all day and every day. We care about being able to heal. We hate disputing with insurance companies, and especially with government bureaucrats. Certainly changes in insurance practices are needed, and would have occurred long ago, absent a government record of 60 years of meddling with the market.As you say, “…let’s disagree over issues that are real, and not wild misrepresentations” such as those in your op-ed, “that bear no resemblance to anything that anyone has actually proposed.”And I agree, this is about America’s future: whether Americans will remain free, or be ruled by an increasingly intrusive and authoritarian statist government.
G. Wesley Clark, MD
(Doctor Clark is not related to the retired general of the same name)
August 17, 2009
Tags: Barack Obama, Democrat Congress, Health Care, Health Insurance, National Healthcare, Radical Left, Socialism, Universal Health Care Posted in: Politics No Comments
The Milk Carton Politicians
John F. Tierney (D-MA)
It looks like the kitchen is becoming too hot for some members of congress. Ever since some congressmen stood in front of their constituents and took the heat for the goings on in Washington, some have decided it’s better to stay out of sight. Ed Morrissey has a list at Hot Air of those who are dodging their obligation to those that they represent, and the list continues to grow.
I certainly hope that the citizens of these congressmen have good memories. Hopefully they will remember in November 2010.
August 16, 2009
Tags: Congress, Democrat Congress, Democrats, heal, Health Care, Health Insurance, Milk Carton Politician, National Healthcare, Republicans, Town Hall Meeting, Town Hall Protests Posted in: Politics One Comment
Go Flag Yourself
August 14, 2009
Posted in: Uncategorized No Comments
It All Depends On What Your Definition Of Evil Is
Harry Reid seems to believe that people expressing their opinions in opposition to an Obama and Democrats takeover of health care are on the same level as those who fly airplanes into the World Trade Center. Let's compare how both President Bush and Sen. Harry Reid utilized the word "evil".
"Tomorrow, when you get back to work, work hard like you always have. But we've been warned. We've been warned there are evil people in this world. We've been warned so vividly. And we'll be alert. Your government is alert. The governors and mayors are alert that evil folks still lurk out there. As I said yesterday, people have declared war on America and they have made a terrible mistake. My administration has a job to do and we're going to do it. We will rid the world of the evil-doers." – President George W. Bush, September 16, 2001
People who are disrupting town halls with "lies, innuendo and rumor," and not letting others speak are "evil-mongers" said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada)
August 14, 2009
Tags: Barack Obama, Democrats, George W. Bush, Harry Reid, heal, healt, Health Care, Health Insurance, Liberal Media Bias, National Healthcare, Radical Left, Socialism Posted in: Media Bias, Politics One Comment
MSDNC Host Lies About Obama Single Payer Plan
MSDNC’s Lawrence O’Donnell, filling in for Chris Matthews, denies that President Obama has ever said that he is seeking a single payer healthcare system for the U.S. While interviewing Katy Abrams, who had challenged Arlen Specter to address this plan, Abrams stated her fears were based on the statements made by Obama. Here is the clip from the show.
You would think that by now, with all the exposure Obama’s statements have received over the past weeks, O’Donnell should have been briefed, educated, or just removed his head from his ass about the facts. So here is one more video of what President Obama said, just for you Larry.
h/t Geoffrey Dickens at NewsBusters
August 13, 2009
Tags: Barack Obama, Democrat Congress, heal, Health Care, Health Insurance, Lawrence O'Donnel, Liberal Media Bias, MSDNC, MSM, MSNBC, National Healthcare, Radical Left, Socialism, State Run Media, Universal Health Care Posted in: Uncategorized No Comments
