Outside the Beltway

Obama’s New Oil Spill Plan: An “Oil Recovery Czar”

Doug Mataconis · Tuesday, June 15, 2010 · 4 comments

At least one element of the plan that President Obama plans to announce in his speech tonight has been leaked, and it sounds very familiar:

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama, in his televised speech to the nation Tuesday, will announce the creation of an oil recovery “czar” to oversee progress in siphoning crude from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, his chief spokesman said.

Speaking on ABC television’s “Good Morning America” program, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said the position is envisioned as “somebody that will be in charge of a recovery plan, putting a recovery plan together…when we get past the cleanup and response phase of this disaster.”

Mr. Obama is to deliver what will be his first Oval Office address, as he seeks to reassure anxious Americans over the Gulf of Mexico oil catastrophe.

Bruce McQuain reacts to this news by raising a very relevant question:

Well let’s see – we’ve had a commission appointed. We’ve seen the administration explore criminal charges against BP. And now, the administration that has been on top of this thing since “day one” is going to appoint “somebody that will be in charge of a recovery plan” and “putting a recovery plan together” 55 freakin’ days in to this!?

Now he’s going to put someone in charge and put a plan together?

Indeed, especially since I, like many people I think, assumed that they’d already done that when they appointed Thad Allen to be National Incident Commander back in April.

Outside of this fact, though, there’s the general objection to the whole idea of “czars” appointed by the President without the advice and consent of the Senate that seems to have infected the American political system. It started in during the Great Depression and picked up steam during World War II when various men were appointed to manage the wartime economy Various Presidents since then have utilized the concept a few times during their Presidencies since then, but it’s George W. Bush and Barack Obama who have really brought about the “czarification” of American government. While the count is as imprecise as the definition of the office, Bush appointed about 35 “czars” of varying type during his Presidency, to date Barack Obama has appointed 32.

While the idea of one person who is supposed to be in charge of all aspects of a specific problem sounds appealing to some, there are serious objections to the entire idea of unappointed officials being granted widespread authority:

[W]hat is a czar? No matter what you call them, these officials generally are seen to have special influence on the specific topic to which they are assigned.

“A czar supposedly would have accountability for something. That is, they are charged with delivering something specific,” said George Washington University professor James Bailey, adding that their authority often crosses Cabinet boundaries.

This is the case with climate czar Carol Browner, whose authority spans the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy.

But such cross-Cabinet posts stand as a testament to government inefficiency, Fortune magazine editor Steve Forbes said.

“It underscores the inefficiency of government that you keep … having people, hoping that maybe they will get something done that the massive government bureaucracy cannot,” he said.

When you think about it that way, the whole “czar” concept starts to sound illogical. If the government itself it too inefficient to get a job done, what does creating yet another government job actually accomplish other than making it seem like things are getting done ?

Then again, maybe that’s the entire point.