A Telling Comparison: Henry Waxman and the Fifth Street Post Office

Henry Waxman: Long Overdue for Closure



Congressman Henry Waxman (D-Santa Monica) is protesting the closure of the New Deal-era Post Office on Fifth Street, which looks like a done deal. The Mayor of Santa Monica has appealed the decision, and Congressman Waxman has signaled his support to keep the post office open. On a related note, Waxman is running for reelection this year, his first real campaign against a well-financed and well-positioned challenger. Waxman has also signaled that he wants to remain representative of the Santa Monica Bay.

 The comparisons between the New Deal-era Post Office and Congressman Henry Waxman are telling, disturbing, and motivating enough to end both.

Both have been fixtures of Santa Monica.  



Fifth Street Post Offiice



Since the FDR administration, post offices like the Art Deco Post Office on Fifth Street have been a landmark of the good that government used to do.

A landmark of the Beltway long before I could tie my shoes or use a belt, Henry Waxman is a gaudy relic of the federal government, a novelty of an old political ideology, in which more government was good government, that the state could supply all our needs, and the cost in the long run would be taken care of with taxes and spending.

Both are in their early seventies, and showing signs of wear and tear. Old and worn, the Post Office still conveys the charm of simple architecture. Henry Waxman, however, has none of the same charm.

Both are long-overdue for closure.

After thirty years of costly overruns, declining quality of service, and better competition, the United States Postal Services has been forced to close down post offices throughout the country. Innovations in technology have rendered the Post Service crippled and irrelevant, burdened with debt and dysfunction which it cannot cope with adequately.

Just like the New Deal-era policies which initiated the United States Postal Service, Congressman Waxman is a Washington fixture who, after thirty-eight years of taxation, spending, uncompromising disrespect, and an outright refusal to  recognize the debts, deficits, and dysfunction of the federal government, has outspent his use and overstayed his weary welcome in Washington.

If the Post Office must be closed down, at least let it remain a monument to the ultimate failings of Big Government as Big Provider of goods, services, and jobs.

As for Congressman Waxman, aside from putting him in a museum for one of the longest-serving Congressman in history, his time has come to go. The Santa Monica Bay can do better than a corporate liberal who spends more time going after steroid use in baseball instead of taking down the debts and deficits ruining this country.

Bill Bloomfield for the 33^rd!