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A czar here, a czar there, everywhere a czar
By: Mark Tapscott
Editorial Page Editor
07/02/09 4:35 PM EDT
Quick, how many "czars" do you think President Obama has appointed since becoming president? Eight? A dozen? Guess again. Try 31, at least according to Taxpayers for Common Sense, which actually counted them.
Washington czars are not new, President Ronald Reagan had one in "White House drug czar" Bill Bennett. But Obama has taken the practice to a new high, effectively creating nearly three dozen.
Taxpayers for Common Sense describes the growing czar ranks:
"By our count there are at least 31 active Czars (see our list here), giving the current administration more Czars than Imperial Russia had in its history. We have a Mideast Peace Czar and a Mideast Policy Czar, a Sudan Czar and aGuantanamo Closure Czar. There’s a Green Jobs Czar, a Pay Czar and anEnergy Czar, an Urban Affairs Czar, Technology Czar, and even a Great Lakes Czar. Thankfully, there’s also an Information Czar."
And TCS adds:
"As they say, too much of a good thing can be a bad thing. When you look at the Czar proliferation (there’s a WMD Czar, too), you have to scratch your head and ask if perhaps we should re-think this approach. Instead of constantly creating new positions to coordinate our government's activities, might it make more sense to figure out how to make the existing structure perform better for the taxpayer?"
You can read the full TCS report here.
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