Friday, August 17, 2012

Waxman and the Malibu Times -- August 17



The Malibu Times reported on Congressman Henry Waxman’s recent press conference, calling for heightened coastal protections along the Malibu shore, yet also taking time to attack the Republicans in the House.

The press conference was in keeping with a key theme of Waxman’s re-election campaign thus far, which is that Republicans are to blame for partisan gridlock in Washington, D.C.

Independent candidate Bill Bloomfield correctly identified Henry Waxman’s press conference and findings as a “partisan document produced at taxpayer expense.”

Congressman Henry Waxman is blaming the Republican Majority in the House for pushing an anti-environmental agenda. Yet Waxman’s legislation has been anti-recovery, and his actions in Congress have done nothing to improve the nation’s laws to protect our waters and protect our rights.

Not the Congress, but rather the Supreme Court has handed down withering judgments faulting the Clean Water for is unwavering vagaries.

In 2006, the Rehnquist Court ruled in Rapanos v. United Statesthat Congress and the EPA failed to define or qualify the extent that running tributaries would impede building on one’s property.

Sackett v. EPA has permitted two home-owners in Idaho to pursue an appeal to end an arbitrate injunction preventing them from building a home on their own property. The Court allowed the Sacketts to sue the EPA immediately instead of enduring fines and sanctions before having a case to sue.

To this day, Waxman still stands by the failed “green loan guarantees program” one which has witnessed the waste of billions of dollars in the worthless quest of green technology on the federal dole. Nineteen federally subsidized companies have gone bankrupt, including $500 million toward Solyndra,“I’m sorry” was all that he had to say.

About the gridlock in Congress, Waxman’s continues to charge that “Republicans are to blame.” This is ridiculous schlock. How does Waxman justify pushing through Cap and Trade in 2009, which passed by the slimmest of margins –219-212, and at the last minute before the floor vote, he crammed in a 300 page amendment, which no one had time to read? Then there was Obama-WaxmanCare, a bill which faced bipartisan opposition, which passed through reconciliation on a 216-212 vote, despite the roaring crowds, both Democrat and Republican, which assembled on the Washington Mall to petition the government not to pass the law?

He has stonewalled proper investigation and mark-up of the XL Keystone Pipeline, throwing out the empty charges of collusion between the Koch Brothers and the Republicans in Congress. These empty charges are systemic and symptomatic of Waxman’s hyped-up hyperpartisanship, stalling Congress, energy independence, and economic recovery.

Waxman attacks the wrong people for the failures of the Clean Water Act, then he hypocritically assails the House Republicans for the very tactics which he actively practices. His partisanship cleary imparts that he will not partner with the opposition to get anything done. It is time for Waxman to part and let Bloomfield take his place to part the partisan gridlock.

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