Herman

Cain

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July 13, 2009

Land of the Czars: Obama’s Unmanageable Executive Structure

There are now 34 presidential “czars” if we include the upcoming addition of an “insurance czar”. With the conflicts and confusion that are bound to happen between the czars and the cabinet heads, the president has added an additional management responsibility to his plate.

This is a good thing for conservatives, because it will impede the effectiveness of an administration determined to be the most liberal, anti-free market, inconsistent and power-grabbing administration in history.

Thirty-four czars plus 15 cabinet heads plus six cabinet-status positions plus 13 entities in the Executive Office of the President equals 69 direct reports. This does not include the vice president or the 25 administrative offices in the White House, which for the sake of national security we hope would not require much of the president’s attention. We hope.

Some members of Congress are correctly questioning the constitutionality of all these czars. Others are questioning their real purpose, while others are questioning the legitimacy of the costs to the taxpayers. While I share those concerns, I question the ability of the president or any human to effectively manage the already huge responsibilities of the presidency, and an additional layer of bureaucracy.

This is based on my 40-year career in various leadership and management roles in organizations that were large, small, for profit, not for profit, private and publicly held. And by the way, I’ve published two books on leadership based on my experiences.

Traditionally, the cabinet heads have provided advice and guidance to the president, while also being administrators of their respective departments. They have now been effectively reduced to just administrators, with the exception of Defense, so far. Some of them may be part of the president’s inner circle, but since the czars outnumber the cabinet heads two to one, you make the call.

The czars are effectively the intimidators. They have no formally defined authority, so their only muscle is the implied force of the president’s “bully pulpit”.

Even with a more traditional span of control (seven to 10) in many organizations, inter-departmental differences of opinions are common. The president has increased the likelihood of such differences by a factor of nearly 10.

We face national security threats, our military is still fighting for us in Iraq and Afghanistan, we are in a recession, federal spending is out of control, Medicare and Social Security are financially dysfunctional and there is violent congressional and public disagreement on how to solve these challenges.

Under the cloak of crisis on top of crisis, there is an unprecedented rush to pass landmark legislation on stimulus spending and climate control, which members of Congress are not even given ample time to read. This is simply irresponsible and insulting to the people, while the president tries a new management experiment.

Aside from whether the long list of czars is constitutional or not, over time this management structure will breed indecision, internal conflicts and inconsistent interpretations of laws and regulations, which are certain to inspire a mound of challenges. 

These challenges are not expected to come from the Democrat-controlled congress, the Obama-controlled Justice Department or the lap-dog mainstream media. They will come from we the people.

Just last week, the Senate started to retreat on the egregious “Cap and Trade and Tax and Kill” bill, after voters “melted the phone lines to Congress” as Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) stated on Fox News last week.

The biggest challenge will come in November 2010. Let’s hope that enough people will have escaped from stupid land by then.

More czars please!

© 2009 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

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