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.