Blogs: Social Security

Yesterday, President Bush made three significant recess appointments, installing officials without Senate confirmation during the congressional recess.

The abuse of the recess appointment perhaps isn't Bush's most egregious attack on our Founders' carefully crafted system of checks and balances, since others before him have exploited this constitutional loophole.

But the implicit reasons behind each appointment are quite egregious, and each in their own way.

The one that's gotten the most attention is Sam Fox, our new Ambassador to Belgium.

It's typical, if still highly inappropriate, for cronies of the President to get cushy Ambassador gigs.

But Sam Fox wasn't just a big donor of Bush. He gave $50,000 to the Swift Boat liars that smeared John Kerry's war record.

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Today's NY Times reports that Bush issued a new executive order intended to undermine our civil service:

...each [government] agency must have a regulatory policy office run by a political appointee, to supervise the development of rules and documents providing guidance to regulated industries. The White House will thus have a gatekeeper in each agency to analyze the costs and the benefits of new rules and to make sure the agencies carry out the president's priorities.

This strengthens the hand of the White House in shaping rules that have, in the past, often been generated by civil servants and scientific experts. It suggests that the administration still has ways to exert its power after the takeover of Congress by the Democrats.

The Bushies sought to spin this power grab as just "a classic good-government measure that will make federal agencies more open and accountable."

Hilarious. Especially on the same day that Dem Rep. Henry Waxman and GOP Rep. Tom Davis hold a public hearing on how Bush's political appointees pressured our civil servant scientists to downplay climate change ... and the White House refuses both of their requests to release relevant documents.

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Last night's State of the Union address revealed that the state of this president is still delusional. He can't level with the American people because he can't or won't recognize the reality that we face.

The best part of the speech wasn't anything the president said. It was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sitting over his shoulder, signaling the change that Americans voted for. The president also got a lift from the "ordinary heroes" that he recognized at the end of the speech. But when it got to substance, the president seemed bored with his own words as he trotted out his pledge for more of the same.

For this president, the economy is great and we need to stay the course. The Democratic response by Senator Jim Webb offered a glimpse of the reality that the president doesn't get - that this economy isn't working for most Americans. No wonder less than a third of Americans think the president has any clue about the problems they face.

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In 2005, President Bush promoted the privatization of Social Security as his top domestic
priority. However, once the American people understood what he was proposing, they more »

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When a headline wrapping a story about the Medicare pre more »

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Colonel (ret.) Larry Wilkerson's worst national security nightmare is the rise of a "dumb tyrant" into the Oval Office. more »

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