By Christina Sun

Bribery, corruption, cronyism, you name it. Obama’s new appointees have participated in them all.

These policy “czars,” as they are often called by the media and the Obama administration, are high level White House officials appointed sans Senate confirmation. Historically, presidential administrations have used czars to rise above the usual Washington fray and help various bureaucracies work together. However, the Obama administration has run amok with the appointments.

According to the White House Report to Congress on White House Staff, the czars are among the highest paid staffers in the White House, and they have a free rein with federal funds and policy-making . There is not enough scrutiny of their actions, and many Americans are not even aware of their existence. If we look closely at some of the backgrounds of these czars, we find histories riddled with corruption, and they bring their expertise to the current administration.

On the campaign trail, Obama pledged to transform Washington’s lobbyist culture. Soon after taking office, he signed an executive order saying that White House appointees should not participate “in any particular matter involving specific parties that is directly and substantially related to any former employer or former clients.” Certainly a noble goal to bring change to Washington.

Ladies and gentlemen: meet Obama-appointed health czar, Washington professional Nancy DeParle, formally known as the director of the White House Office of Health Reform. DeParle ran the Medicare and Medicaid programs during the Clinton administration. Following her tenure, she proceeded to make over $6 million in the health care private sector, according to the Investigative Reporting Workshop, a project of the school of communication at American University. DeParle served on the boards of nine other prominent medical companies companies, many of which have undergone federal investigations and whistleblower lawsuits. An example is while DeParle was a board member of the Guidant Corporation, government regulators found that the company was hiding patient deaths from the FDA.

While serving on the boards of these companies (2002-2008), DeParle was also a member of the government-sponsored Medical Payment Advisory Committee (MedPAC). MedPAC advises Congress on the services Medicare should cover and its reimbursement rates. According to The Commonwealth Fund, a private organization that supports the improvement of the health care system, DeParle is quoted as saying that Obama was “open to making the recommendations of MedPAC mandatory.”

The Obama administration casually overlooks DeParle’s industry ties, despite its rhetoric. The Investigative Reporting Workshop found that as the health czar, she controls $19 billion of federal stimulus money that has been earmarked for health information technology.  DeParle served on the Board of Directors for the company Cerner Corp., which, shockingly, specializes in health information technology.

For another spectacle of cronyism within the Obama administration, look to Adolfo Carrión. He heads the White House Office of Urban Affairs, whose role according to a July 2009 Washington Post article, is to be “part of the Obama administration’s new kind of urban policy to address cities and also their suburbs, which urban advocates hoped would be the focus of the administration’s development approach.” In March of 2009, the New York Times reported that Carrion had accepted thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from developers and real estate firms while their projects were being reviewed by Carrion’s office. As a result, these companies landed lucrative deals.

Carrion also has been known to spend an excessive amount of taxpayer dollars on items such as a $1,700 for the purchase and installation of blue fabric to cover a podium, $690 on gold-sealed business cards, and $50,000 on a going-away party on himself, according to a February 2009 NY Daily News article. A classic example of hard-working Americans’ tax dollars being flushed down the toilet.

On December 15, 2008, the Obama administration added yet another ethics-compromised Washington professional to the White House staff. Carol Browner was named the Director of the White House Office of Energy and and Climate Change Policy, or better known as the “energy czar.” Browner headed the Environmental Protection Agency from 1993-2000, and many controversies abounded during her reign. In her first term as the head of the EPA, a Congressional subcommittee found her to be using taxpayer funds to send out illegal lobbying materials to around 100 environmental lobbying organizations around the country. Browner used her government position to mobilize left-wing groups and forward her own liberal agenda.

In addition, according to the testimony in a freedom of information lawsuit filed against the EPA by the Landmark Legal Foundation, Browner ordered the destruction of agency computer files on her last day as the head of the EPA. A federal court order for the EPA to preserve records had already been put into place. When the case was brought to court by the Landmark Legal Foundation, the judge held the EPA in contempt of court.

Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle have voiced their concerns about Obama’s czars. Democrat Sen. Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia voiced his concerns in a cautionary letter to Obama in early 2009. In reference to past czars and White House staffers, Byrd writes that “they rarely testify before congressional committees and often shield the information and decision-making process behind the assertion of executive privilege.” He adds that, “the rapid and easy accumulation of power by White House staff can threaten the constitutional system of checks and balances.” Ironic, since this is the same party that denounced the Bush administration’s use of executive power.

For his part, Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) is sponsoring a Czar Accountability and Reform Act of 2009 that would “would bar the use of appropriated funds to pay either expenses or salaries of members of task forces, councils, or similar offices established by the president and headed by a person appointed inappropriately to such a post without Senate advice and consent.”

Obama promised to bring change to Washington, but he continues down the path riddled with corruption and cronyism. The facts are clear: despite touting its dedication to government transparency, the Obama administration has reneged on its promises and continues to cater to the Washington elite, amassing enough czars to make the Romanovs turn in their graves.