On Thursday, February 17, 2011, the House of Representatives voted on an amendment to a continuing funding resolution that would defund nine extra-constitutional White House "czars." Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) proposed the amendment to eliminate "a very disturbing proliferation of czars" in the Obama administration, including czars for auto industry manufacturing policy,  green jobs, health care, energy and climate, urban affairs, policy on the Guantanamo Bay detention center, and TARP executive compensation among them. Scalise: "These unappointed, unaccountable people...are literally running a shadow government, heading up these little fiefdoms that nobody can really seem to identify where they are or what they're doing...We do know that they're wielding vast amounts of power." He might have added that the power the czars wield comes primarily at the expense of the legislature, although some of them oversee issues with which all branches of...(Read Full Post)