The American Spectator : All the President's Regulators

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All the President's Regulators

By Philip Klein from the December 2009-January 2010 issue

If Congress can't pass Obama's liberal agenda, these people will likely impose it.

During the first year of the Obama administration, conservatives have directed much of their fire on the major legislation the president is pushing through Congress. This concern is justifiable, as Democrats are moving bills aimed at taking over the nation's health care system, creating a national energy tax to limit carbon emissions, and enabling unions to rapidly add members by denying workers a secret ballot on unionization.

But as critical as it is for the right to expose the damaging consequences of such major legislation, conservatives must not lose sight of the fact that there is more than one way for the president to impose his vision on the country. Each day, throughout the executive branch, presidentially appointed bureaucrats who remain unknown to most Americans make decisions that have consequences for the entire nation. And in President Obama's case, his appointments serve as a plan B, allowing him to realize the parts of his agenda that he is unable to enact through the legislative process. In some instances, Obama's more radical appointees have withdrawn or resigned once their extreme views have come to light. One prominent example is Van Jones, who was forced to resign as the White House "green jobs czar" after the revelations that he once described himself as a communist and that he signed a petition of a group that raised questions about whether the Sept. 11 attacks were an inside job. Yet many other troubling Obama appointees have escaped major scrutiny. Some have had their nominations stalled in the Senate, while others are already hard at work implementing liberal policies.

"This administration is moving very quickly on the appointment side of things to put people in place that, because of the regulation state that has built up over the past 40 years, will have within their realm the power to affect every area of this country without our elected representatives having so much of a say in it," Bill Wilson, president of Americans for Limited Government, told TAS. Wilson, whose group has been closely tracking Obama's appointments, specifically highlighted labor and environmental policy as among the most worrisome areas.

Obama gave the first indication that he planned on handsomely rewarding unions for the role they played in getting him elected when he named California Rep. Hilda Solis to be secretary of labor. Solis was first elected to Congress in 2000 as a union candidate, and as a member of the House of Representatives from 2001 until her appointment this year, she racked up perfect or near perfect vote ratings from every major union. She also served as treasurer of American Rights at Work, a pro-labor group that maintained the "Shame on Elaine" attack website aimed at her predecessor, Elaine Chao. And shortly after being confirmed, she went to work reversing many of Chao's policies to the benefit of her union allies.

While liberals look at the agency as an entity that only regulates businesses, under the leadership of Secretary Chao from 2001 through January 2009, the Labor Department also took its responsibility of regulating unions seriously. Chao beefed up the Office of Labor Management Standards (OLMS), which polices unions, and during this time, the division's actions led to 929 convictions of corrupt union officials and to the recovery of more than $93 million on behalf of union members. Yet shortly after Solis was sworn in as the new secretary of labor, the Obama administration announced its intention to slash the OLMS budget by more than 9 percent, while at the same time boosting the budgets of the divisions tasked with regulating businesses. As a result, corrupt union bosses will have a much freer hand with which to bilk their members.

BUT THIS IS JUST a small part of Obama's efforts to use the Department of Labor to pay back unions. He also tapped two women with close ties to unions -- Patricia Smith and Lorelei Boylan -- for other top positions within the department. While working for the New York State Department of Labor, Smith and Boylan spearheaded a controversial program in which the state partners with unions and other liberal community groups to police workplaces.

"Just as no one wants to live in an area riddled with crime, nobody wants to live in a neighborhood where workers are paid sweatshop wages," Smith said when announcing the program in January 2009. "New York Wage Watch will increase labor law compliance by giving regular people a formal role in creating lawful workplaces statewide, and thereby improving the quality of life in their communities. It will also help law-abiding employers, who struggle to compete with businesses that undercut them by violating the law."

But in practice empowering "regular people" actually means that the government is deputizing unions to help police workplaces.

"New York Wage Watch is labor law enforcement at the purest, most grassroots level," boasted Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, in the press release announcing the program.

Boylan, who runs the initiative, was nominated by Obama to head the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour division, but her nomination was withdrawn in October. Smith, who actually devised the Wage Watch program in New York, was appointed by Obama to be solicitor of labor. Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY) placed her nomination on hold, meaning that Democrats will need 60 votes to move it forward. Her status was still in limbo as of this writing.

Even more worrisome for the American business community is President Obama's attempt to pack the National Labor Relations Board with union lawyers who would make rulings that would achieve many of the same results as labor-friendly legislation. The most obvious example of such legislation is the Orwellian-named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). The bill's two major provisions would deny workers a secret ballot in voting on whether to unionize, and force employers into binding arbitration proceedings when negotiating contracts with unions. To this date, Republicans have succeeded in preventing EFCA from becoming law, but the bill's legislative fate may not even matter if Obama gets several controversial nominees to the labor panel confirmed.

Currently, there are only two members on the five-member NRLB -- one is a Republican and the other a Democrat. To tilt the balance of the board, Obama tapped two union lawyers (Craig Becker and Mark Pearce). He also appointed a Republican Senate staffer, Brian E. Hayes, in hopes it would dissuade Republican senators from blocking the other two.

Becker, a longtime labor activist, is the associate general counsel of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). The left-wing magazine In These Times wrote that he "helped lay the intellectual foundation for the Employee Free Choice Act." More relevantly, he wrote a law review article arguing that the major aims of EFCA could be achieved through rulings by the regulatory body to which Obama has appointed him.

"This is somebody who has announced ahead of time that he thinks he can do much of the left's agenda through the regulatory process," Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, said in an interview with TAS. "It's one thing for him to say he intends to do something, but when you look at it, where are the guardrails? Who says he can't? Who slaps him down?"

Norquist said that if Becker were confirmed, all that would need to happen would be for somebody to file a complaint arguing that the unionization process at a particular business was unfair, and the union-friendly board could decide in the person's favor and set rules for unionization and collective bargaining along the lines of what is prescribed by EFCA.

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About the Author

Philip Klein is The American Spectator's Washington correspondent. You can follow him on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/Philipaklein

Letter to the Editor View all comments (34) | Leave a comment

melvin| 12.7.09 @ 7:43AM

So when did a bureaucratic regulatory agency become one of Obama's little helpers in getting legislation passed. "Lisa Jackson, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, made these intentions clear, EPA will stand ready to help Congress craft strong, science-based climate legislation that fulfills the vision of the President"
Isn't this a little above and beyond the EPA's mandate?
Ms Jackson should stick to the EPA's intent of just sticking their noses up people's tailpipes and leave it at that.
Come to think about it, this might not be so bad in the long run. If the President is going to completely bypass the Legislative side of the government, then why in the hell do we even need the House of Representatives and the Senate for.
Since Obama is rendering these bodies obsolete then lets get rid of them and save ourselves allot of time and money with having these octogenarians out of the picture.

Ret. Marine| 12.8.09 @ 7:43AM

Checks and balances my friend, checks and balances.

gerald stephens| 12.7.09 @ 8:12AM

ON PAPER... the 'regulator' scenario might appear to some the perfect mechanism for destroying the Constitution.

It won't work for the same reasons King George and his gang failed.

Resistance commenced with the spoken and written word.

It morphed into civil disobedience.

That only partially successful, led to WAR
with the then gang.

Americans will not suffer the fools indefinitely.
CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE.
CIVIL WAR.

N.B. This is not an exhortation for insurrection - merely a recitation of HISTORY.

As Felix Unger said, "Sorry about the cornflakes, FU."

Gerald Stephens
Hartford, CT

Len| 12.7.09 @ 4:41PM

Gerald, the US constitution is already meaningless, otherwise Obama and all other presidents would not be able to establish all these "regulators. Now, I do agree that without a major restoration of the people's rights and constitutionality the only recourse left is civil war, but are the people there yet?

Martin j smith| 12.7.09 @ 8:29AM

I think for every agency that has an Obama type of appointment the Republican Party--or some other group should appoint at least one person to monitor that appointment specifically. this would also include "czars". I am not talking about the little fish, but the upper most folk of each regulatory agency. A kind of shadow ,non-governmental monitoring group. Just to let the peasants know what is going on in the less exposed corners of our government.

Gill O’Teen ✝✡| 12.7.09 @ 11:30AM

I just wanted to point out that at 6 to 10 inches in length, the Piranha is not a big fish, certainly not when compared to a Great White.

Gill O’Teen ✝✡
gill.Oteen07041776@gmail.com
Proudly pro innocent life and I vote.
Don’t Tread on Me!!

Road Kill| 12.7.09 @ 8:39AM

Now we have four branches of government to deal with. Executive, Judical, Legislative, and the Regulatory. I never saw that last branch in the Constitution. Maybe I better read that document again, I'm sure it is in there somewhere. somewhere.

Ken (Old Texican)| 12.7.09 @ 9:34AM

In 2010, if we can win back congress, we can simply "de-fund" these agencies unti we get the Presidency back in 20 12.

owyheewine| 12.7.09 @ 9:52AM

A better solution is to sunset all non legislative rules after a certain period of time, 5 or 10 tears. After all these rules are not mae by accountable elective officials, and should never be allowed to achieve the status of law. Rules that are sunset could be kept only by discreet legislation, to keep legislators from giant omnibus bills.

Doctor Right| 12.7.09 @ 9:52AM

If it comes down to reams of unelected bureaucrats with power beyond their legally-mandated job descriptions imposing "law" on the people that the people have made clear they don't want, the answer is...

Civil disobedience.

Like Andrew Jackson once famously quipped about a ridiculous Supreme Court decision:

"They've made their ruling. Now let's see them try to enforce it!"

Peter Killie| 12.7.09 @ 12:12PM

Far better that Obama's uses his executive power to further his goal of turning the United States into a larger version of France. The Chosen One is a one term president and as soon as he and his "regulators" are swept from office the new president can use his executive powers to clean up the Obama mess.

Marc Jeric| 12.8.09 @ 2:42AM

Not France, Sir - Abu Hussein from Kenya, our Community Organizer-in-Chief, is trying to make us into the United Soviet States of America. By the way "community organization" in Russian spells "soviet" - the principal invention of V. I. Lenin. I lived both in France and, before France, lived in a communist country from which I escaped.

Northern Rebel| 12.7.09 @ 12:26PM

Gerald Stephens:

You are not alone! After ten years in northern NY, I am back in Connecticut, about 15 miles south of you.

Perhaps we can conspire to take our country back together!

Yosemeti Sam| 12.7.09 @ 12:38PM

Yelping, yelping.

There is a Constitutional 3rd branch of Govt -
the SCOTUS. No, liberals - it's not the swampland
LMSM!

The 3rd co-equal branch of Govt - USE IT!

To Preserve, Protect and Defend the
CONSTITUTION of the United States.

Tony in Central PA| 12.7.09 @ 1:28PM

I think a big part of this Administration's jobs plan will be to increase the number of government jobs, and the arena of regulation will be a big part of that. Now if they can only figure out a way to have the government as its own biggest source of revenue.

Gatoray57| 12.8.09 @ 7:30PM

Tony, the goal is to have legions of overpaid government union thugs, er bureaucrats to harass and intimidate the small business community, as we're practically the only ones left able to desire an existence that isnt attached to a government teat!

Oldefarte| 12.7.09 @ 2:38PM

This is simply incredible. This creeping liberalism MUST be stopped, and the ONLY way possible is through VOTING. The several elections this year should be just the BEGINNING, and hopefully the American outrage over this excrement will continue into next year's elections. WAKE UP, AMERICA!!!

Osamas Pajamas| 12.7.09 @ 3:16PM

When government adopts laws, rules and regulations, there are intended beneficiaries and intended victims. When the government outlaws thievery, rape and murder, the ostensible beneficiaries are the innocent while the ostensible "victims" of such laws are, of course, the perpetrators of such crime.

This is the "administration of justice" --- and by the way these actions were "criminal" before the adoption of any government law codifying criminal behavior, as their criminality first arose in a normative or moral context.

A perversion of the law and rules and regulations is when government reverses its role as "protector" and instead taxes or regulates one innocent class of resident within its jurisdiction for the purpose of benefiting another class of resident --- whether innocent or not.

This is the "administraion of charity" --- it is the opposite of justice --- inasmuch as charity accords "unearned" benefits to the recipient.

It's always good for the victims to read Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck and Ayn Rand --- and of course all of the fine writers to be found in The American Spectator.

For the purpose of overthrowing the dictatorship, however, it makes sense as well for the victims of it to read Sam Adams, John Locke, Thomas Jefferson, and Patrick Henry.

When the scumbags who rule us by force and by fraud come after you, at least you'll know that you're "in good company."

If the Founding Fathers and luminaries of the First American Revolution were alive today, they'd be in jail or dead or on the run and underground ---- and plotting the destruction of the dictatorship.

Radioman 777| 12.7.09 @ 3:24PM

Any imposed regulations should be universally ignored and those cited should universally refuse to pay fines or other penalties. A general spirit of non-cooperation with any EPA or other regulators should be the order of the day. Screw 'em, they can't put all of us in jail! Treat it like the 55 mph speed limit and other inanities.

Stephanie| 12.7.09 @ 10:06PM

Radioman, how do you ignore your electric bill when they jack it up 3 fold? I'm with ya on ignoring the penalties and fines, but can you ignore all of it? And will people give up their comforts to fight for our freedoms?

Radioman 777| 12.9.09 @ 7:08PM

If the electric companies and other power producers ignore it, then the rates don't go up. It requires some level of pushback from power producers and others at the top of the pile.

Ken (Old Texican)| 12.7.09 @ 3:44PM

Radioman
I'm with you. Screw 'em!

rdman| 12.7.09 @ 6:19PM

The Rise of the Marxist Government Class
The United States Government has become a culture of despotic bullies, tyrants and thugs. Cynically disguised as distinguished, articulate, self-appointed elitists, these vacuous, narcissistic, image-oriented hypocrites emphasize symbols over substance and reality. The pursuit of excellence is being replaced by the celebration of the artificial. Politicians are more concerned with the display of personalities and pursuit of personal power than with principles or the use of power for the common good.

Politicians have become experts at deceitful duplicity, selling their calculated positions to a public to the point where We, The People can no longer tell a fabricated image from a real person. Citizen voters are so seduced by the slick package that they often do not realize that there is nothing in it… the package is the message.

The shallow values and the beguiling oratorical skills have become the norms by which everything is measured. The only guideline is the ability to gain attention… what is noticed has value. Calculated images successfully masquerade as reality. Exhibitionism and self-promotion is now acceptable as Government Class factions compete to be the winner… to be famous and celebrated.

Once elected into government, the politician embarks on an unbridled and unprincipled pursuit for power and control, incrementally eroding the private free market sector, our Constitution, and our freedoms and liberty. They launch vicious, personal attacks to destroy any person or any organization demonstrating genuine leadership and patriotism that strives to protect our magnificent Constitution and our magnificent Country.

The root cause falls at the feet of the “Good Old Esquire’s Club” who make up the majority of the Government Class. With very few exceptions, these leftist lawyers turned career-politicians and career-bureaucrats have never managed a P&L, never had to meet a payroll, never managed a company or corporation, never started and grew a company providing more and more jobs.

They are, in fact, despotic, partisan hacks and tyrants who now believe they are a law unto themselves, cynically living in the world of realpolitik where what matters is to prevail, regardless of their constituent’s best interests or their sworn duties to the Constitution and the Country.

Conscience, Dignity, Integrity, Leadership, Statesmanship, Public Service and the Lessons of History are totally absent within the emerging Government Class. The Founding Fathers must certainly be turning in their graves. Our magnificent Constitution, our magnificent Country and We, the People are in mortal danger.

We, The People are being sold a narcissistic fantasy and a cruel charade. Behind the politician’s shallow facades, there is an ulterior agenda…

The Government Class Agenda
The real agenda of these career-politicians is to create a central command and control socialist/fascist government to enslave and rule the dirty, unwashed, uneducated masses who get stuck in Iraq, then forced, under penalty of law, to pay exorbitant taxes to finance the politician’s deceitful, deceptive and evil corruption.

The tactics employed by these entrenched gangsters with law degrees are nearly identical to the rise of the Nazis in the late 1930’s, with one distinct difference. The National Socialists of Germany employed military might… this generation of Government Class thugs employ weasel lawyers and subversive socialist/fascist tactics to complicate straight-forward issues with double-talk to compromise the Constitution with nebulas legal-eze trash language that means anything they want it to mean and to politically destroy anyone and anything they can’t control.

The Only Solution
Time is overdue for We, the People to tell the socialist/fascist democrats and the spineless RINOs that we’ve had enough their deceptive deceit and corruption. Its time to stand up, find these career-politician tyrants in gross violation of their Constitutional Oaths and purge them from the halls of our government.

Eliminate the Washington DC snake-pit of entrenched appeasing, expedient, placating and crab-walking despots by voting these delusional, parasitic, megalomaniac realpolitiks out of government… they are not worthy to represent We, The People of this magnificent Country.

1) Start this process by requiring your State’s Elected Representatives to convene a Constitutional Convention for the sole purpose of modifying in pertinent part, Amendment XVII to read, “Representatives and Senators of the U.S. Congress, elected by the people thereof, for two years and six years respectively for a maximum of two terms…”

2) Reject all career-politicians running for re-election. They have become corrupt and no longer fit for Leadership or Statesmanship. They are, in fact, a scourge upon the land.

3) Recruit and elect true representatives of We, the People… Citizen Professionals who have demonstrated excellence in management, performance, integrity, patriotism, pride and optimism, chivalry and civility for a maximum of two terms to re-establish the public service model of our Founding Fathers… Leadership, Statesmanship, Dignity, Honor and Duty.

Summation
Over 100 years ago, the great Sioux Indian Chief Sitting Bull, after dealing with government lawyers, proclaimed with eloquent simplicity and clarity, “Whiteman Speak with Forked Tongue.”

Contemporarily stated, despite their duplicity and deviousness, the career-politician-bureaucrat may trip themselves up because part of their need for vindictive triumph includes the desire for their opposition to know who victimized them. Their need for attention may become their nemesis. However, the career-politician-bureaucrat doesn’t care. Public adoration by the unaware or condemnation and notoriety gives them the attention they crave… being admired, feared or despised affirms that they exist with godly power and control.

Robert D.
American Citizen Taxpayer
Retired Free Market Corporate Executive
Reagan Conservative
Viet Nam Combat Veteran

Stephanie| 12.7.09 @ 10:18PM

Damn Rdman, you sound like you know what you're talking about. I honor your service to our country, to the free market, and your Reagan conservativism. Perhaps you should be in politics!

Rmm| 12.9.09 @ 11:31PM

I'm onboard. The question that is primo to me, is how to wrest control from the power hungry elites that have done everything in the book to hood wink the country with their deceptive policy that hasn't worked. Our economy is under attack with out dated Keynesian policy, thinking that we can spend our way out of this mess. Big government solves no problems, they only create more.

Michael Tomlinson| 12.7.09 @ 9:52PM

Four words sum up what is needed -- impeach and remove Obama. Even Reid's Virginia "bitch" two-faced Jim Webb is nervous how his master is making light of the Constitution and Senate treaty prerogatives. Maybe there is hope in the Obamanation.

Blacque Jacques Shellacque| 12.7.09 @ 11:03PM

Four words sum up what is needed -- impeach and remove Obama.
Unfortunately, that's not likely to happen before November 2010, at the earliest.

Marc Jeric| 12.8.09 @ 2:48AM

EPA has proclaimed today that carbon dioxide, that priciple of life on earth, is a pollutant. Our environmentalists are in fact eco-nazis engaged in a cult of death - they consider one billion people as "sustainable", thus requiring the murder of the other 5.5 billion.

Marc Jeric| 12.8.09 @ 2:51AM

1) There was first in the 1970's the global cooling scam (see e.g. Newsweek April 28 1975 on the Internet); the government-paid scientists (90% of them are rejects of private enterprise) recommended to fight the new ice age by sending our war planes to cover the polar ice with soot in order to increase solar heat and so prevent crushing of New York skyscrapers by the new glaciers;
2) When that did not work we had the global warming hoax in the 1990's, proclaimed by mainly the same government-paid scientists (Dr. Hansen of the NOAA, for example); to prevent the massive heating, fires, flooding of coastal cities, disappearance of Florida, California, and Caribbean islands, massive hurricanes, global famine, and other catastrophic events we should nationalize oil and gas and coal and electricity companies;
3) after 11 years of considerable cooling we are now faced with the climate change flimflam where whatever happens with our climate we should nationalize oil and gas and coal and electricity companies; and why not our banks, car and insurance companies while we are at it. To prevent this catastrophe the best vehicle presumably is international agreements enforced by the United Nations world government.
As for the influence of carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas: on a normal day the atmosphere contains 20,000 ppm (parts per million) of water vapor and about 300 ppm of carbon dioxide. The government-paid scientists say that an increase of 100 ppm of CO2 over the next 50 years will result in a catastrophic warming. The thermal absorptivity of water vapor is 4 times larger than that of carbon dioxide; it follows that the CO2 increase will increase the overall thermal absorptivity of the mixture by about 1/8 of one percent. The production of methane from livestock flatulence and the rotting swamps (called "wetlands" by the environmentalists) vastly surpasses the influence of human-produced CO2.
There is the Global Warming Petition Project (see Internet) where 31,478 US independent scientists declared that there is no anthropogenic (human-caused) global warming; of these 9,029 are scientists with PhD degrees. Our environmentalists tried to sabotage this effort by submiiting phony names with phoney degrees - and then claimed the whole effort by the Petition scientists was a fraud. It took us 3 years and a lot of private money to verify the credentials of all the signatories and clean up the Petition of those saboteurs. See also Manhattan Declaration with more such signatories, plus a large number of scientific groups from other countries who state the same.
I am one of these signatories, MS and PhD degrees from UCLA, with majors in thermodynamics and heat & mass transfer.
I think to fight this communist attempt to secure a permanent hold on power should not be fought on the narrow grounds of more taxes - that is the losing proposition; where about 50% of the population is on some kind of welfare we will always be outvoted. The battle should be fought and won on the firm scientific basis.
4) And now we have "cap™" power grab.
SCAM - HOAX - FLIMFLAM - POWER GRAB!!!

God bless that whistleblower who discover and published the conspiratorial e-mail by the globaloney warming crowd!

Ralph Lyke| 12.27.09 @ 11:02AM

The article is mis-leading on the Employee Free Choice Act. This proposed amendment to the the National Labor Relations Act, doesn't eliminate the secret-ballot.

Rather, workers would have two choices to be certified by the NLRB: the secret-ballot or card check.

FatBurnFurnace| 1.12.10 @ 2:59AM

But in practice empowering "regular people" actually means that the government is deputizing unions to help police workplaces.

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