Henry Waxman Voted for War in 2002

The War in Iraq was a mistake. Many conservatives stated that before the authorization for war, and many more concede as much now. Whether “Bush lied, people died” remains up for discussion. Five separate intelligence agencies concluded that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, including France and Germany, which refused to allocate troops to the region. However, putting aside the heavy, heated partisanship of Jack Neworth’s latest letter, let us remember that Democrats also authorized the war, including Santa Monica’s own Henry Waxman, who resisted supporting articles of impeachment against President Bush. Instead he was investigating steroid use in baseball and ignoring the plight of our veterans. Also, the Democratically controlled Congress in 2007 approved Bush’s troop surge.

National building was and remains a foolish policy, one which Israeli activist Natan Sharansky impugned without first establishing a culture of natural right and respect through law and order. Unfortunately, our nation’s  leaders still refuse to learn this lesson, but we the voters do not have to forget. So far, the United States military-industrial complex is staying out of Syria, a quagmire of differing tribal and religious factions which will only get worse.

If anyone demands prosecuting President Bush, then impeach President Obama, too; but not for just “war crimes”, but for “domestic insurrection”, because of massive debts, deficits, and unconscionable transfers of wealth from  the US Treasury to bailout “Too Big to Fail” Banks, which are “Too Big to Exist” because of the “Military-Industrial-Complex”, which is something worth getting angry about.

Poverty Programs Inpoverish People

Congressman Henry Waxman loves poor people.

Or he loves people poor.

Perhaps he should pay a visit to Stanford economics professor Thomas Sowell, whose research proves that poverty programs create wealth for bureaucrats and economists, and government bought statisticians, but do nothing to alleviate people in poverty.

I cannot think of policies which can be more ruinous to any people than the ongoing handout culture which tells people that they cannot make it on their own. Instead, they need handouts, handouts, handouts.

It is both immoral and unjust to give people other people's money, not just because it unjustly punishes those who work, earn, save, and invest, but because even the takers themselves get taken, and cannot take themselves out of the cycle of dependence.

The system of pay out and bailout is shameful enough with Washington and Wall Street. People deserve a break, too, from the government slop and sloth which keeps people down and out.

If Congressman Waxman really cared about the poor, then why not cut the spending, cut the taxes, and cut the government out of our lives, so that more Americans, more families, can get off the foodstamps and stamp their mark on the big world out there?

Time to Badger the Badger!

How do you like it, Congressman Waxman?

First, he goes

If there is any clearer example of hypocrisy, look no further than this clip.

Waxman wanted to read the Fifth Amendment rights for the Solyndra executives.

Yet he never had a problem castigating CEOs, you never had problems going after colleagues, but now the tables are turned.

Congressman Henry Waxman has quite a reputation with his Democratic as well as Republican colleagues.

Voters are waking up in the Santa Monica Bay, and they have no problem giving Waxman "The Badger" a taste of his own medicine!

Time to badger the badger!

Henry Waxma, Global Warming, and Leaps of Faith

Congressman Henry Waxmanis so concerned about "climate change", that he dedicated another Twitter Account to the issue @WaxmanClimate.

Recently, Congressman Henry Waxman has been reaching out to "faith communities" to "pray up" support for "climate change" intervention. Some of his tweets include:

We should heed the faith community’s call to action on #climatechange http://1.usa.gov/ZQZrFs

then

We are called upon to be good stewards of our environment and address #ClimateChange before irreparable harm is done http://1.usa.gov/ZQZrFs

and also

Protecting the #climate is one of the great moral challenges of our time. http://1.usa.gov/ZQZrFs  #ClimateChange #ForwardonClimate

Frankly, just because "faith communities" claim that "climate change" is a "big deal" does not make it a big deal, no more than if groups of people coalesced to declare "2 + 2 = 5" does it change the fundamentals of mathematics. Truth and substance are not based on the number of people who agree or disagree. Scientific evidence is based on rigorous research, experimentation, inquiry, review, and a healthy skepticism in the face of diverse opinions or divergent facts.

I commented at Waxman's townhall meeting in Hermosa Beach on January 30 that I believe in "climate change". I recognize that it has been getting a little warmer these days. Am I worried about it? No. Should the federal government enact far-reaching executive enforcement and legislative fiat to protect everyone of us from the slightly rising temperatures? Not at all.

Research in media hype confirms my doubts about "climate change". To assist my doubts, a  recent program from "CBS Sunday Morning" focused on four difference scientists, each of which acknowledged that the world is getting a little warmer. What causes it, what to do about, whether to worry about, remained as divisive and unsubstantiated as ever a conclusion among the four revered scientists.

Forbes magazine offers some decisive rebuttals to the "climate change" cacaphony, charging that the world is recovering form a "Little Ice Age" in the 19th Century. Human beings thrive in warmer climates. And no one has determined the "correct" temperature for the earth. If a business magazine is not authoritative , the "Climategate" revelations among different "global warming" scientists should grant enough pause on this issue. Emails sent among scientists suggested that data were skewed to justifying a conclusion of dangerous climate distortions.


An extensive number of American scientists have pledged that "climate change" is not the threat that activists claim it to be, as well. How many? 31,000, and counting. The community of experts would suggest that healthy skepticism resides among respectable scholars of science on this issue. The fact that such wide debate exists should cause Waxman and his colleagues to pause on this issue.

But what about all of "those wildfires"? Does that not suggest that the world is getting too hot?

One New York Times blog shared the following:

Scientists taking part in a conference call on Thursday arranged by the nonprofit science outreach group Climate Communication said that while they could not apportion blame to a specific factor, there was agreement that this week’s events fit into a pattern of extreme weather events and catastrophic fires that climate scientists predict will only worsen in decades to come.

They could not "blame a specific factor. The scientists cited then claimed that weather patterns will "worsen". How can they be so sure? Scientific inquiry requires hypothesis, research, and conclusion, yet nothing concrete has emerged.

Patterns over history perhaps suggest that the weather trends mean nothing but hotter weather in the future. Different sources refute this argument:

NASA has shared the following data, with the following conclusions:

The world is getting warmer.

I have not disputed that. Is it a threatening development, a mere trend, or something that the government can do anything about?

Washington Post columnist George Will's article on "Climate Change" cites numerous sources, all of which indicate that periods of cooling and warming have dotted the past two decades, and aside from media scrutiny, there have been no Category Three Hurricanes since Katrina in 2005. Superstorm Sandy was devastating, but what can one expect when a hurricane hits concentrated, urban populations with overseeing, intense media conglomerates all along the Eastern Seaboard. Louisiana media outlets did not possess such media influence in 2005, nor was the region as urban or as populated. These facts do not diminish the devastation of those storms, nor can they suggest that "climate change" is the all-powerful cause and effect of larger trends to come.

Rebuttal articles have contended that George Will cherry-picked a limited time frame, or that his rhetorical efforts are propaganda out of frame climate change "enthusiasts" as "scare-mongers. Yet the diversity of opinion is compelling enough to suggest pause and reflection, rather than alarm and intervention.

The growing miasma about "climate change" (or "global warming"?, or "ozone depletion"?) is starting to look more like a blind leap of faith, one with consequences both unwarranted and unsupportable.

Henry Waxman Helped Close the Fifth Street Post Office

Santa Monica and Congressman Henry Waxman are synonymous. Whether they share the same concerns, however, remains in doubts, since the Fifth Street Post Office is set to close, and Waxman has done nothing but write letters and lament its final days. Moreover, Waxman is much to blame for the closure of the “New Deal” era post office, since he co-sponsored a “raw deal” in seven years ago: "The 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act" (PAE), which requires the United States Postal Service (USPS) to  fund health benefits for postal workers seventy-five years in advance.

The USPS declining revenue is not just the fault of technology or private services, but a “health insurance mandate” which will now prevent the postman from ringing once (let alone twice) on Saturdays, plus the massive layoffs which will ensue. Under Waxman’s tenure, Congress not only passed legislation which doomed the USPS to a trudged trek of unsustainability, but now his signature legislation, ObamaCare, is driving up health care costs and diminishing access to proper health care for all Americans.

Congressman Henry Waxman decided that steroid abuse in baseball merited more attention than our homeless veterans. He spent hours picking on Big Tobacco CEOs. He investigated lead in toys instead of investigating and invigorating the Brentwood VA. His hastening the decline of USPS is just inexcusable, and should stoke enough outrage that even Santa Monica residents will throw up their hands in resigned disgust with “their” Congressman, who has taken them for granted for so long.

Ben Carson Supports Health Savings Accounts, Henry!

Dr. Ben Carson scored some points in his National Prayer Breakfast.

He suggested Health Savings Accounts are the way to go.

At birth, every person gets a Health Savings Account, along with their birth certificate.

They would be responsible for the money over their lifetime, and then they could leave the money to their children if they do not use everything.

Congressman Henry Waxman voted against tax exemptions for health savings accounts.

Congressman Waxman, you have no business being in office!

From Teachers to Police Officers to Postal Workers

Congressman Henry Waxman:

He told Congressman Mick Mulvavey that you "did not know" that GM went bankrupt in 2009.

He  supported the GM auto bailouts, even though two major auto companies went bankrupt that year, but the company with the union workers got the bailout from Washington.

The same bailout, which helped the United Autoworkers, ended up hurting the retired teachers and police officers of Indiana, whose pension funds lost millions of dollars for the autobailouts.

He supported the bailouts, and Congressman Mulvaney wanted to know what you had to say to those teachers and police officers.

Now, another government agency is facing bankruptcy. I say "another" because GM is now a publicly owned company, yet I have yet to see any real dividends from the "corporate buy-out" or "hostile takeover". At any rate, another government agency is having a hard time paying its bills, the United States Postal Service, and the same company is threatening to do away with Saturday service.

In 2006, he co-sponsored a bill, the 2006 Postal Accounablity and Enhancement Act, which required the Postal Service to provide health benefits seventy-five years in advance within one decade. The agency has shifted $5 billion every year for the past seven, with $44 billion in reserve, yet the company is facing huge shortfalls, with layoffs looming, plus the end of weekend service.

During 2006, he was receiving donations from three major postal worker unions. Those contributions likely contributed to his willingness to support bolstered health care funding for the select cadre of workers, or at least those union leaders.

Because of this massive, mandated payout, post offices are closing throughout the country, including the Fifth Street Post Office in Santa Monica, along with growing layoffs. The very workers whom he claimed to support, he has ended up hurting.

From teachers to police officers to postal workers, Waxman does not seem to care.

More About Waxman, Dirty Politics, and XL Keystone

Congressman Henry Waxman has resisted the XL Keystone pipeline since its inception. In one interview, he shared that he did not want all of that "bad oil" ruining the ground water from Canada to the Gulf Coast. In an energy committee hearing, he offered the empty claim that the Koch Brothers were pulling strings in Congress to get the pipeline built.

Recently, Waxman criticized the Keystone project because of the "Dirty Oil" [0:18:39] that will pollute the ground and affect the climate. For the record, hydrocarbon coming out of the ground, whether in tar sands or in liquid form, will always be dirty. While Waxman complains about "dirty oil", one has to ask if there are dirty politics, or at least dirty motives, behind Waxman's cheer-leading for green technologies, "clean energy", and environmental initiatives which have done very little initiating.

To this day, Waxman has only apologized because "Solyndra happened", but with that company and eighteen other federally subsidized green tech companies, taxpayers lost $6 billion dollars. The Congressman even voted against the "No More Solyndras" Act, which would prevent these wasteful boondoggles in the future. Instead of belittling "dirty oil", Waxman should denounce the dirty backroom deals which have funneled billions of wasted federal dollars to these failed green tech companies. Even LA City Council President Eric Garcetti has "wandered" into hot water because of his connection with "CODA" carmarkers, an industry which Garcetti wooed from Santa Monica to Los Angeles with $1 million in redevelopment money. Providing only one third of projected hires, the electric car company is now laying off staff: another Solyndra", according to LA Weekly.

As for Keystone, despite Waxman's vehement objections, the State Department has sounded approval. Following their review of the potential impact that the pipeline would have on the climate, or the environment, the report concludes the following:

"In its draft environmental review released Friday, the State Department said the construction of the pipeline through much of the Midwest would not have a meaningful impact on climate change."

No meaningful impact, Congressman. Nothing to worry about, much like the whole climate change nonsense. Instead of telling us that the sky is falling because the temperature of the earth is rising, Congressman Waxman should pay attention to more pressing issues, like our government's inability to enact substantial cuts, or to reform entitlements, or to pressure Iran to stay away from its nuclear weapons program, or reform the Postal Service so that the agency does not have to siphon away $5 billion a year to fund health benefits seventy-five years in advance in just one decade.

Let us not forget the tens of thousands of homeless veterans throughout the Los Angeles area, who deserve real "climate change": a place to eat, sleep, recuperate, and recovery at the Brentwood VA, their proper destination once returning stateside. The world is getting warmer, but not for the veterans, not for the business world, and certainly not for taxpaying Americans who are seeing their money burned away in Congressional waste and abuse.

How about showing some support for the "blue" postal workers, men and women who are now working ten to twelve hours to deliver the mail? The local press has reported that they work longer hours, with less rest, less support, and less respect all around. The diminished United States Postal Service may have to forgo Saturday service, as well, because of the financial burdens caused by legislation that you sponsored: "The 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act" (PAE).

Yes, the physical world is getting a little warmer, too, but nothing for us to
get all heated about. Droughts, fires, and all the other natural disasters are not having the damaging impact which green "terrorized" or "terrorizers" are having on the debate. Energy prices are rising once again, and tempers are flaring, not just from motorists who are feeling the pain at the pump, but now one plank of the Democratic Party cabal, the unions, are aflame in protest because of President Obama's resistance to the project. The XL Keystone proposal is the only real "shovel-ready" project which would grant real jobs to men and women looking for more than a handout, a bailout, or a band-aid from a government that cannot agree on anything.

Congressman Henry Waxman, it's time to "nix" your opposition to a pipeline which will provide more access to energy, bring down the costs of fuel, and prevent other "superpowers" like China from taking advantage of Canadian tar sands, where the hydrocarbon will be able to fuel the entire world for one hundred years. Congressman Waxman, instead of chasing clouds in the sky or building castles in the air with the "help" of green technologies ("I'm sorry Solyndra happened"), why not relax your red-hot push for green-freak projects which project nothing but project deficits?

Forget about the "Dirty Oil", the "Clean Energy", or even "Climate Change", Congressman Waxman. Cut the spending, lower our taxes, and clean away the dirty politics of special interests, regulatory burdens, and unsightly oversight of projects which can enhance, not detract from, our quality of life in the United States.

Short Letter About Waxman, USPS, and the PAE

"The 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act" (PAE) mandates the United States Postal Service (USPS) to fund “first class” health benefits for postal workers seventy-five years in advance. Today, the USPS is bankrupt, sending away workers and threatening to discontinue Saturday service. Three Democrats co-sponsored the PAE, including Santa Monica Bay Congressman Henry Waxman.

The USPS is closing post offices around the country, including Santa Monica’s Fifth Street Post Office. While Santa Monica activists have cheered Congressman Waxman because he wrote letters protesting the closure of the New Deal-era Post Office, the turn of events which has sent the USPS from thriving to striving to barely surviving, resides not just with the cutting competition, but the legislation with Congressman Waxman’s stamp of approval, largely because the postal worker labor unions “rang him twice” with major contributions.

Like a rabid dog attacking the mailman, Congressman Waxman spent hours picking on Big Tobacco CEOs. He investigated steroid abuse in baseball. He investigated lead in toys instead of invigorating the Brentwood VA. Because he sponsored legislation hastening its decline, Waxman has pushed the envelope of legislative neglect.

The declining USPS, and the imminent closure of the Fifth Street Post Office, are due in large part to Congressman Henry Waxman’s “special delivery” to special interests. Instead of giving Waxman a piece of their mind (or their mail), Santa Monica residents should throw up their hands, “go postal”, and stamp “return to sender” on Congressman Waxman, who refuses to respect taxpayers, veterans, or postal workers.

Waxman, Dirty Oil, and Dirty Politics about Climate Change

Congressman Henry Waxman resisted the XL Keystone pipeline because he did not want all of that "bad oil" ruining the ground water from Canada to the Gulf Coast.

Recently, Waxman criticized the Keystone project because of the "Dirty Oil" that will pollute the ground and affect the climate.

For the record, hydrocarbon coming out of the ground, whether in tar sands or in liquid form, will always be dirty. While Waxman complains about "dirty oil", one has to ask if there are dirty politics, or at least dirty motives, behind Waxman's cheer-leading for green technologies, "clean energy", and environmental initiatives which have done very little initiating. To this day, Waxman has only apologized because "Solyndra happened", but with that company and eighteen other federally subsidized green tech companies, taxpayers lost $6 billion dollars. The Congressman even voted against the "No More Solyndras" Act, which would prevent these wasteful boondoggles in the future. Instead of belittling "dirty oil", Waxman should denounce the dirty backroom deals which have funnelled billions of wasted federal dollars to these failed green tech companies. Even LA City Council President Eric Garcetti has "wandered" into hot water because of his connection with "CODA" carmarkers, and industry which Garcetti welcomed from Santa Monica to Los Angeles with $1 million in redevelopment money. The company brought only one third of projected hires, the company is now laying off staff. Another "Solyndra", according to LA Weekly.

As for Keystone, despite Waxman's vehement objections, the State Department has stepped in. Following their review of the potential impact that the pipeline would have on the climate, or the environment, the report concludes the following:

"In its draft environmental review released Friday, the State Department said the construction of the pipeline through much of the Midwest would not have a meaningful impact on climate change."
No meaningful impact, Congressman. Nothing to worry about, much like the whole climate change nonsense. Instead of telling us that the sky is falling because the temperature of the earth is rising, perhaps Congressman Waxman should pay attention to more pressing issues, like our government's inability to enact substantial cuts, or to reform entitlements, or to pressure Iran to stay away from its nuclear weapons program, or reform the Postal Service so that the agency does not have to siphon away $5 billion a year to fund health benefits seventy-five years in advance in just one decade.

Let us not forget the tens of thousands of homeless veterans throughout the Los Angeles area, who deserve real "climate change", as in a place to eat, sleep, and recuperate at the Brentwood VA, their proper destination once returning stateside. The world is getting warmer, but not for the veterans, not for the business world, and certainly not for taxpaying Americans who are seeing their money burned away in Congressional waste and abuse.

Yes, the physical world is getting a little warmer,  too, but nothing for us to get all heated about. Droughts, fires, and all the other natural disasters are not having the damaging impact which green "terrorized" or "terrorizers" are having on the debate. Energy prices are rising once again, and tempers are flaring, not just from motorists who are feeling the pain at the pump, but now one plank of the Democratic Party cabal, the unions, are aflame in protest because President Obama's resistance to the project. The XL Keystone proposal is the only real "shovel-ready" project which would grant real jobs to men and women looking for more than a handout, a bailout, or a band-aid from a government that cannot agree on anything.

Congressman Henry Waxman, it's time to "nix" your opposition to a pipeline which will provide more access to energy, bring down the costs of fuel, and prevent other "superpowers" like China from taking advantage of Canadian tar sands, where the hydrocarbon will be able to fuel the entire world for one hundred years. Congressman Waxman, instead of chasing clouds in the sky or building castles in the air with the "help" of green technologies ("I'm sorry Solyndra happened?), why not relax your red-hot push for green-freak projects which project nothing but project deficits?

How about showing some support for the "blue" postal workers, men and women who are now working ten to twelve hours to deliver the mail? The local press has reported that they work longer hours, with less rest, less support, and les repsect all around. The diminished United States Postal Service  may have to forego Saturday service, as well, because of the financial burdens caused by legislation that you sponsored: "The 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act" (PAE).

Forget about the "Dirty Oil", the "Clean Energy", or "Climate Change", Congressman Waxman. Cut the spending, lower our taxes, and clean away the dirty politics of special interest, regulatory burdens, and unsightly oversight of projects which will enhance, not detract from, our quality of life in the United States.

Henry Waxman -- Where Are You?

How much longer will the residents of the Beach Cities have to wait before State Senator Ted Lieu hosts a townhall meeting in Redondo Beach? He should have scheduled something by now, since his new “deferral areas” include Rancho Palos Verdes, along with Santa Monica and Beverly Hills. Senator Lieu mocked the newly appointed California GOP Chairman Jim Brulte, claiming “his position is like coaching the Cleveland Browns”, because of the “deeply loyal base” with “little chance of winning.”Voters want a legislator who cares about humans. Lieu cares about animals. Animals can't vote, people do. Who has the loyal but losing base, then?

Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi has moved into his new office in Torrance, CA. When will he tell the voters about his plans to protect Prop 13, to resist the public sector union lobby which is crippling our schools and our city services, and when will he recant the slanderous attacks he made against his previous political opponent? Honesty and integrity are in greater need, but in such lacking supply.

Congressman Henry Waxman blames Republicans for resisting compromise on the much needed sequester, which is cutting two cents from every dollar in the federal budget. Waxman co-sponsored mandatory funding of postal workers’ benefits decades in advance, which has bankrupted the Postal Service and deprived voters of Saturday Service. Obama-WaxmanCare is creating doctor shortages and premium hikes, plus higher taxes. Waxman needs to explain these issues. Voters deserve more than “I don’t know!”, “I’m sorry!”, and “We’re not broke!”

Waxman's Whining in the Park LaBrea News -- Beverly Press

As a President of the 33rd Congressional district, which Congressman Henry Waxman represents, I take grand exception to the LA Congressman's assertions that the sequester, the budget deficts and debt, and the partisan gridlock in Washington are all the fault of Republicans.

Congressman Waxman has been in office for 38 years, yet for decades he has done nothing to stop the spending spree in Washington. He voted against tax cuts for working Americans four times in the past decade as well, and the excessive federal regulations have only exploded during his tenure in office, in greater part because of his legislative "accomplishments", like the Affordable Care Act. The Department of Health and Human Services has just released 700 pages of new regulations because of this ill-conceived law. No wonder Waxman barely won reelection in 2012.

In open committee, Waxman twice declared "We're not broke!", even though the United States now faces a $16 trillion national debt. His signature legislation, the Affordable Care Act, has caused health care premiums to rise, while fewer doctors are willing to practice medicine (or even receive Medicare patients because of the massive cuts in the entitlement resulting from ObamaCare).

Even though he admitted "I'm sorry Solyndra happened", a $500 million green tech boondoggle that went bankrupt last year, along with eighteen other federally subsidized green tech companies, Waxman voted against the "No More Solyndras" Act.

He said "I don't know" about the basic laws regulating steroid abuse, yet he insisted on running wasteful oversight committee hearings on steroid abuse in baseball, along with investigating lead in toys, when he could have exposed the massive waste and fraud in Medicare, or the misuse and misappropriation of the Brentwood VA. He also did not know that General Motors went bankrupt, or that the pension funds of Indiana’s retired teachers and police officers were raided to fund the 2009 auto bailouts.

Just last week (March 2, 2013), ABC News reported that Congressman Waxman was a co-sponsor for "The 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act" (PAE), which has bankrupted the United States Postal Service. His support for the bill, which required the USPS to fund the healthcare benefits for all postal workers for seventy-five, was a likely sop to the three postal worker unions which contributed to his campaign warchest that year.

For all of Waxman's whining and wrangling about Republicans, his overextended tenure in office has done much to cause the debt, deficits, and dysfunction which are defeating any meaningful reform and recovery in Washington D.C. If he will not be part of the solution in Washington, Waxman should at least admit that he has been a part of the problem.

Waxman Wiped out the Postal Service

ABC News has just reported that an obscure federal law has beem driving the demise of the United States Postal Service:

"The 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act" (PAE)

This bill, signed into law by President Bush, instituted that the United States Postal Service (USPS) had to fund health benefits for postal workers seventy-five years in advance. Furthermore, the USPS had to save those funds in the first ten years following the passage of the law. For the past seven years, the USPS has set aside five billion dollars every year into the health benefits fund. $44 billion dollars have been invested, but because of less business, a hostile business climate, and the diminished business savvy of government institutions, the USPS is bankrupt.

In 2006, the USPS was bringing in hefty profits, with unprecedented levels of mail funneling in and out and all around. The rise of online payments, Internet banking, and private carriers like Amazon.com, began cutting into the USPS bottom line. The Great Recession made a declining industry struggle all the more. The health care funding demands from the PAE, still ongoing, have pushed a burdened government agency not just into the red, but may have Americans hopping red with rage because the USPS will no longer ring once, let alone twice, on Saturdays. This past year, the USPS lost $16 billion, but more than half of those losses are due to the mandated health benefits fund. Even though the postal workers can count on future health care, can they count on having a job in the near future, especially since their employer is dying in order to provide them coverage? Can anyone count on ever getting their mail in the future?

"Progressive" critics will argue that limited government Republicans advanced "The 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act" as a poison pill to kill the USPS outright. However, three Democrats co-sponsored the bill, including House Rep Mike Honda (D-San Jose) and Santa Monica Bay Congressman Henry Waxman.

The declining revenue dissipating from the USPS has not only forced a decline in service, but now post offices around the country are forced to close, including the Fifth Street Post Office in Santa Monica. In the past few months, Santa Monica activists have cheered Congressman Waxman because he has written a number of letters protesting the closure of the New Deal-era Post Office.

Furthermore, Waxman championed the private intervention of a local film producer, who stepped in to save the Venice Post Office.

However, the turn of events which took the USPS from thriving to striving to barely surviving, reside not just with the cutting competition which has eaten away the mail stock from decades past, but the legislation which Congressman Waxman endorsed as a sop to the following interest groups who contributed to his campaigns in 2006:

The American Postal Workers Union

The National Association of Postmasters

The National Rural Letter Carriers Association

What will the voters in his district say, now that one of the chief sources of debt, deficit, and decimation of the USPS, and by extension the Fifth Street Post Office, are due in greater part to Congressman Waxman's sop to these special interests?

Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa has been investigating the waste and fraud perpetrated in the Postal Service program, along with the growing liabilities which have loomed over this department. Unlike Democratic leaders, including Congressman Henry Waxman, the Republicans in Congress have taken every step to prevent the default and taxpayer bailout of the USPS.

Congressman Waxman still defends the law, but this past Friday, Waxman admitted:

"Congress should strengthen the Postal Service and put it on a long-term path to sustainability."
Under his tenure, with his blessing, Congress passed legislation which doomed the USPS to a trudged trek of unsustainability. Now, his signature legislation, Obama-WaxmanCare, has driven up health care costs and weighted down the costs of these benefits all the more.

For a Congressman who decided that steroid abuse in baseball merited more attention, for a Congressman who spent hours picking on Big Tobacco CEOs, who decided to investigate lead in toys instead of investigating and invigorating the Brentwood VA, his utter neglect, and thus his enabling the hastened decline, of the USPS is just inexcusable, and should stoke enough outrage that even Santa Monica residents will throw up their hands in resigned disgust with the Congressman who has taken them for granted for so long.

Not just for the "hidden" costs (which we would learn about when the Democrats passed Obama-WaxmanCare) now made plain from Obama-WaxmanCare; not just from the higher premiums, the declining access, and the taxes which were never supposed to happen in the (Un)Affordable Care Act; but also for the bankrupted state of the USPS, House Oversight Committee Chairman Darryl Issa must subpoena Congressman Waxman and demand that the Santa Monica Congressman explain why he supported legislation that has now decimated a key government agency, one which liberals of all stripes once championed as one of many examples in which government provides "good" service in competition with the private sector.

Contact Waxman's office, and give him a piece of your mind (or mail), too.