In 1989, President George H.W. “Poppy” Bush (He of "Read my lips" fame) appointed the first drug czar, former Education Secretary William Bennett. In recent years, successive administrations have had a climate czar, border czar, disaster czar, car czar, and many other types of czars. I believe “W” had about a dozen czars.
In fact, the czar system, which lavishes unconstitutional autonomy and authority on political appointees, is so well-like by President Obama, his administration has no less than 32 czars.
This goes hand-in-hand with the continued, unchecked growth of the government bureaucracy. After all, don’t you think each and every czar has his or her own staff, task forces, committees, and advisors?
I recall that way back in my freshman year in college, a government class covered the concept of a fourth branch of government: The administrative branch. Translated, that does not mean the executive branch; it means the bureaucracy branch.
Congress debates and enacts laws, and bureaucrats draft, implement, and enforce the regulations that carry out those laws. Typically, the regulations manifest an ideology, as with the EPA’s recent “finding” about CO2 and other greenhouse gases. Often, the bureaucratic tentacles and ramifications end up being far more pervasive and ubiquitous than the authors of the original legislation ever dreamed they would be.
So we end up with unelected, unaccountable, nameless, faceless bureaucrats who have the power and authority to create regulations, implement them, and enforce them with the threat of fines or imprisonment for violators.
This is one reason why a continually growing federal government is like a runaway train: dangerous, and nearly impossible to stop. Can people drag themselves away from "American Idol" long enough to recognize the slippery slope we're on?
Somehow, I don’t think our Founders would be pleased with the fourth and fifth branches of government. And I'm certain they'd be appalled with Simon Cowell, who just might be the Redcoats' revenge!
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