Obama Tells Congress He's Keeping His Czars (advisers)

[Tx4obama]

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama had a message for Congress Friday: his so-called "czars" aren't going anywhere.

The budget bill that passed Congress Thursday also included a provision to defund a number of White House czars -- the high-level presidential appointees whose ranks have swelled in recent decades as a means of skirting Senate confirmation hearings.

SNIP

... on Friday night, Obama declared that he intends to ignore that part of the budget legislation, issuing a relatively rare "signing statement" after he inked the budget deal in which he argued that the legislative effort to eliminate those positions was an unconstitutional infringement on the executive branch.

"The President has well-established authority to supervise and oversee the executive branch, and to obtain advice in furtherance of this supervisory authority," Obama wrote in a message to Congress. "The President also has the prerogative to obtain advice that will assist him in carrying out his constitutional responsibilities, and do so not only from executive branch officials and employees outside the White House, but also from advisers within it. ... Legislative efforts that significantly impede the President's ability to exercise his supervisory and coordinating authorities or to obtain the views of the appropriate senior advisers violate the separation of powers... Therefore, the executive branch will construe (the law as to) not to abrogate these Presidential prerogatives."

Full article here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/15/obama-czars-signing-statement_n_849963.html

---------------------------

Looks like President Obama is fed up with the republican's bullshit :)

[Exilednight]

1. Total waste of government resources. These "czars" have accomlished absolutely nothing. I would

be all for it if Obama actually used them to accomplish something, but they've accomplished nothing tangible. Plenty of rhetoric, but lack of action.

[Tx4obama]

3. How do you know they have accomplished nothing? THEY ADVISE the President.

As long as they are 'advising the President' then they are doing their job.

[Exilednight]

5. Show me one issue where a government "czar" actually managed to

accomplish the complete job they were tasked to do.

[Tx4obama]

6. They are 'advisers'. Perhaps you should look that word up in the dictionary.

The majority of the time whatever advice they give to the president is 'behind closed doors'.
So, how would you know what is being said in the White House?

[Exilednight]

7. The drug czars job is to fix the issue with illegal drugs. None of which have accomplished that

task.

These czars are appointed specific problems that they are tasked to solve, yet years and years go by, sometimes decades, and no progress is ever made.

If a president, no matter what their political affiliation, wants to appoint a czar, then they need to be approved. If they're going to provide partisan advice, then they need to be part of the party apparatus.

[Tx4obama]

8. Obama has been in office less than 2 1/2 years .....

So what has progress or lack there of in the past 'decades' when Obama was not president is irrelevant in this particular case.

[Exilednight]

9. It's not irrelevant. Past performance is the best predictor for future performance. n/t

[Tx4obama]

10. I disagree. The performance of the Obama administration has nothing to do with past GOP presidents.

[Exilednight]

11. Democratic administrations have had czars, too.

FDR had 11
LBJ had 3
Jimmy Carter had 2
Bill Clinton had 8

[Capn Sunshine]

12. Hey , I'll bet you're one hell of an investor

With that system you'll go far!

[Exilednight]

13. You want me to produce the future of the economy based on past performance? Sure, it will

develop another bubble, followed by a recession, followed by a bubble, followed by a recession.

Everything has a pattern.

[Ian David]

2. Before Bush, one of the LEGITIMATE uses of a signing statement...

... was when The President believed Congress was infringing upon the authority of The Executive Branch.

And this is clearly the case now.

[Tx4obama]

4. I agree :) n/t