French King Louis XIV believed that he had the right to do whatever he desired as the ruler of France . When asked to explain how he thought the king should interact with the rest of the government and the people, his reply was, “L’etat, c’est20moi”, or “I am the state”, meaning that he was bound by no rules and had no limits.
Over the years, the expression became a catch phrase for those government officials who overstepped their bounds.
When America was created, the drafters of the Constitution carefully distributed the powers of the government among three branches to prevent any one branch or individual from acting as if there were no limits. This check-and-balance system was designed to keep everyone within pre-set boundaries.
So, for example, when the Office of Inspector General was created in 1978, for the purpose of allowing for independent audits of federal agencies and expenditures, the law specified that it would require the agreement of both the President and Congress to remove or transfer an Inspector General, and that the reasons would need to be set forth in writing at least 30 days before any action could be taken.
The intent of the law was clear. Auditors must be independent.
President Obama, however, has decided that this law does not apply to him. In the past month, he has single-handedly removed 3 Inspectors General from office, without following the established rules. In each case, the removed IG had been in the process of uncovering questionable activity in the course of the audit.
The 3 Inspectors are:
Gerald Walpin, who blew the whistle on the Mayor of Sacramento, causing his organization to pay back hundreds of thousands of dollars for misuse of federal community organizing funds. The Mayor has been given no penalty, but Mr. Walpin has been fired.
Neil Barofsky, tasked with watching over the financial stimulus spending. Mr. Barofsky was first denied access to Treasury documentsTom Hamburger and Peter Wallsten of the Chicago Tribune write:
…now Neil Barofsky is embroiled in a dispute with the Obama administration that delayed one recent inquiry and sparked questions about his ability to freely investigate.
The disagreement stems from a claim by the Treasury Department that Barofsky is not entirely independent of the agency he is assigned to examine a claim that has prompted a stern letter from a Republican senator warning that agency offic ials are encroaching on the integrity of an office created to protect taxpayers.
Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, sent the letter Wednesday to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner demanding information about a “dispute over certain Treasury documents” that he said were being “withheld” from Barofsky’s office on a “specious claim of attorney-client privilege.”
Judith Gwynne:
Separately this week, the International Trade Commission told its acting inspector general, who is not subject to White House authority, that her contract would not be renewed.
Grassley had become concerned about her independence because of a report earlier in the year that an agency employee forcibly took documents from the acting inspector general.
“It is difficult to understand why the ITC would not have taken action to ensure that the ITC inspector general had the information necessary to do the job,” Grassley wrote on Tuesday.
Less than three hours after the letter was e-mailed to the agency, the acting IG, Judith Gwynne, was told that her contract, which expires in early July, would not be renewed.
We have a president and Democrat-controlled Congress which are spending trillions of dollars as fast as they can, and simultaneously inspectors general charged with keeping the process honest are fired.
