In one of his first speeches after winning the White House, President-elect Obama committed to eliminating billions in federal bureaucratic waste.
Odd, then, that his early appointments suggest a greater commitment to increasing bureaucracy.
Why else the need for duplicative titles, offices and responsibilities?
Consider Obama’s recent pick of Shaun Donovan – currently head of New York City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development – to run the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Simultaneously, Obama picked Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion to run a brand-new White House Offi ce of Urban Policy. According to Obama, the new agency is needed “to ensure that all federal dollars targeted to urban areas are effectively spent on the highest-impact programs.”
Of course, that includes federal money going into, yes, housing and urban development!
This isn’t Obama’s first “double-up.”
In addition to naming physics Nobel Prize winner Steven Chu as secretary of energy, Obama has Carole Browner (Bill Clinton’s Environmental Protection Agency director) as White House “energy czar” – a new position that addresses energy and “climate change” issues.
Of course, there will still be an actual EPA director, too – Lisa Jackson.
The economic team has Tim Geithner as secretary of the treasury and Lawrence Summers (himself a former treasury secretary) as head of the National Economic Council – a White House position only created in 1993.
But Obama also added former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker to head up the brand-spanking new President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board.
And this doesn’t even count calls for a “car czar” to oversee the ongoing bailout of the Big Three automakers – a responsibility that should accrue to new Commerce Secretary Bill Richardson.
Furthermore, under Obama, the US ambassador to the United Nations – Susan Rice – will be elevated to Cabinet-level status (thus, equal to, rather than subordinate to, the secretary of state).
Obama hasn’t even taken office yet, and see how his government grows.