Ezekiel on Waxman: An Extended View

Ezekiel's Take on Waxman's Good Work
Speaking with voters throughout the 33^rd Congressional District, one of the chief compliments I hear about Congressman Henry Waxman is that he went after the Bush Administration when the government was running up $12 billion in waste during the Iraq war. There was also the  $700 million US Embassy constructed in Baghdad, which rivaled the Vatican in size and scope.

I understood, Waxman’s outrage regarding Condoleezza's inability to recall key elements of the Bush Administration’s choice to invade Iraq. I understand that many people in this country are angry at both parties, which have chosen their respective interests to divert taxpayer dollars to fund.

I wish that Republicans in Congress had taken on the Bush's War in Iraq. I commend Congressman Waxman for leading the charge on uncovering multi-billion dollar waste in Iraq. He wanted to impeach President Bush, but why has Waxman said nothing in the face of absentee President Barack Obama, a progressive who has exploded our government debt by $5 trillion dollars in one term, with nothing but stagnating economic recovery, unremitting unemployment, and increasing waste and fraud in this country? Obama has not even gotten our troops out of Afghanistan yet!

Since Congressman Henry Waxman has been reaching into the past in order to justify his returning to Congress for an unprecedented nineteenth term, I see no reason why the voters in the 33^rd Congressional District should not also consider his selective enforcement of subpoena power while serving as Chairman of the Energy or the Oversight Committees.

Based on his hit-and-miss record, despite his reputation as a “Eliot Ness Reformer”, Congressman Henry Waxman is just another partisan playing to his party.

Congressman Waxman ought to explain his lack of outrage on the following issues:

There was the Congressman when the House of Representatives was caught up in the Post Office Scandal and the Check-Kiting Scandal, both of  which brought down the Democratic majorities in the House and the Senate in 1994? Certainly, Mr. Waxman would have been wise enough to hold his own party accountable just to save his party’s majority. Or would he?

When Democrats returned to power in 2008, Waxman started an intraparty fight with Michigan Congressman John Dingell, who then and now remains the longest (self)-serving politician in Congress. Waxman won the Chairmanship of the Energy Committee by a close vote, with the resulting job-killing regulation-bingeing Waxman-Markey bill (“Cap and Trade”) legislation rammed through Congress on another close vote .

When ObamaCare was facing difficult opposition from voters in the country, including a number of companies who were going to issue massive tax-write offs because of the horrendous rise in projected  healthcare costs, Waxman  threatened to call another committee hearing to intimidate those CEOs into revising their write-offs, yet Waxman backed off at the last minute, partly because of ranking House Energy Committee member Joe Barton's exposure of Waxman’s attempt at political theater.  The uproar from corporate America and the country was more than “Bully Pulpit” Waxman was prepared for.

In spite of all the “claimed good” that Congressman Waxman has accomplished,  I am reminded of a verse from the prophet Ezekiel:

"But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned: in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die." (Ezekiel 18: 24)

Congressman Waxman’s “righteous” deed of going after Bush and Iraq does not mitigate the underlying failures of  the the Big Tobacco hearings in 1994. The Tobacco CEOs -- The Seven Dwarves -- perjured themselves before Waxman:  They lied, people died, yet they only had to pay billions in civil torts. Not one of them went to jail.. Those hearings were more about scandal and scene-stealing than about the public welfare.

I am not pleased when I find that the same Congressman who demanded that our foods have nutrition labels -- now refuses to support the XL Keystone Pipeline extension, which will bring down the cost of oil, gas, and provide relief for fuel consumers who are witnessing an unprecedented increase in food prices.

I wish Waxman had pursued members of his own party with the same assiduousness. After nineteen green tech companies have gone bankrupt, taking down billions of taxpayer dollars, Waxman merely mentions: “I’m sorry!” The expansion and expense of government power will inevitably breed corruption, waste, and fraud, yet what else can we hope for if a liberal legislator who “loves to legislate” sees nothing wrong with expanding government power into healthcare and environmentalism?

From ignorance about this country's steroid laws, to the billions that this country has lost on federal loan guarantees, to his blatant indifference to the national debt, Mr. Waxman's former victories over Big Tobacco, Big Food or Big Iraq do not compensate for his repeated failures to stay informed and stay involved in the needs of his constituents.

 

On November 6^th, end the reign of Congressman Henry Waxman.