News Home

Congresswoman Virginia Foxx

In the 1970’s Richard Nixon appointed the nation’s first “drug czar”.  In the nearly four decades since, successive administrations spawned a proliferation of czars in charge of nearly every conceivable area of government.  

Presidents decreed the creation of “czars” to manage specific policy areas or national crises with no doubt the best of intentions.  After all, with a sprawling and often unmanageable federal bureaucracy standing in their way, Presidents view a powerful czar with sweeping jurisdiction as the quintessential problem solver. 

But is it possible to have too many czars? I would argue that, yes, the executive branch’s proclivity to consolidate authority outside of the normal appointment and congressional confirmation process a hallmark of an ever-larger and more powerful federal government. 

The existence of unelected czars is a bit of a parable for the unfettered growth of government.  Why czars?  Because their existence heralds a sprawling government that needs taming.

Consider how many government czars we have today.  Over the past several months the president has appointed an energy czar, car czar, border czar, faith-based czar, health-reform czar and of course a bailout czar, among many others.  As a result, the United States went from the two or three czars of the 70’s and 80’s to the current stable of 20 to 34 federal czars (the number varies depending on who you ask) in charge of everything from immigration to healthcare.

These are important issues that demand our attention.  After all, with Washington’s current bailout mentality we probably need someone whose sole responsibility is keeping tabs on who is getting bailed-out with your hard-earned tax dollars.  But as Foreign Policy magazine noted recently, President Obama produced more czars in his first three months in office than the Russia Romanov Dynasty managed to produce in more than three centuries. 

Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia said that this “rapid and easy accumulation of power by White House staff can threaten the constitutional system of checks and balances.”  I agree with Senator Byrd’s statement.  But the czar multiplication also highlights how large and unmanageable the federal government gets when it is allowed to expand unchecked.

Today the federal government is larger and spending more than ever.  In this year alone many economists expect the federal budget deficit to hit $2 trillion.  At the same time that we are experiencing sky-high deficits Congress is talking about creating a new government-run healthcare program that the Congressional Budget Office said will add $239 billion to the deficit in the next 10 years.

When you boil it down “adding to the deficit” is another way of saying “increasing the cost of government”.  Ironically, over the years congressional estimates of the costs of new government programs chronically underestimate the price tag of proposed new programs. This means that America usually doesn’t get a clear picture of how much new government programs cost until they’re up and running and have already far outstripped their original price tag. 

For instance, when Congress was first considering the creation of Medicare part A, the hospital insurance program, Congress estimated that it would cost $9 billion by 1990, according to the congressional Joint Economic Committee.  The actual cost in 1990 was $67 billion, seven times more than Congress estimated.

Then in 1967 Congress estimated that the entire Medicare program would cost $12 billion by 1990.  What was the actual 1990 cost?  $111 billion.  Almost ten times the original estimate. 

Later, in 1987, Congress estimated that a segment of Medicaid called “disproportionate share hospital payments” to states would cost less than $1 billion in 1992.  Five years later the results were in: $17 billion, an incomprehensible 17-fold increase over the estimate just five years earlier. 

You probably get the idea.  Government programs have a tendency to take on a life of their own and cost taxpayers way more than was originally estimated or envisioned.  And the next thing you know Washington has sprouted 20 new czars to manage the expansive programs and bureaucracy that attend them.  Is this your tax dollars at work, or your tax dollars being wasted?