Why a car czar creeps me out.

During the oil embargo of the early 1970s, President Nixon appointed James Love as Energy Czar to head the newly formed Federal Energy Administration. Now we are stuck with a cabinet level agency, the Department of Energy in its place. Did we really need another bureaucracy in the first place? I don't think so.

My concern is a Car Czar will transform itself into another large bureaucracy. Thank goodness President Bush did not appoint a Czar for 31 days, he just left the responsibility with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. The Treasury Dept. is funding the auto bailout so they should oversee the use of the funds.

My advice for President Elect Obama is this. Make a list of all the government agencies that GM Ford and Chrysler have to deal with now. I'll get you started with the obvious, departments of Labor, Commerce, Transportation, EPA. These are just a few cabinet level federal agencies. Don't forget the various and sundry state and municipal governmental entities they deal with. Is another large bureaucracy going to make the Big 3 manufacturers into instant turnarounds? No, it will only strain their ability to turn a profit, the basic ingredient of a viable recovery.