Waters and Waxman: End the War on Drugs

If there is one member of Congress whom I find more disagreeable than Henry Waxman, it would be Maxine Waters (D-Hawthorne, Los Angeles). She plays the race card at every turn. She makes the most slanderous and outrageous accusations, yet no one holds her accountable. Once she claimed that President Ronald Reagan started the War on Drugs to poison inner city youth, yet no one challenged her to shut her mouth. She threatened corporate CEOs, telling them that federal government would “take them all over”. And no one can forget her empty invective: “The Tea Party can go straight to hell.”

Point of fact, it was Richard Nixon who started the War on Drugs (shame on that immoderate moderate, some might say – then again, he wanted to speak up for the “Silent Majority”). For all of Waters’ race-berating against the “Gipper”, Ronald Reagan won a landslide of support following his Presidential races in 1980 and 1984. Point of order, the federal government has neither legal nor moral authority to take over major businesses (Sorry, Maxine: No “Social . .  er taking over” for you). Point of decorum, the TEA Party is a multi-ethnic movement which seeks to bring the federal government back to its proper, constitutional scope. Without them, the Republican Party, and the country, would have been worse off, in both a budget deficit and national debt inferno from which we would never escape.

As for Congressman Waxman, there is more than enough to make the case for removing him from office. From ignoring the well-being of our veterans for decades, to pursuing inane green interests at the expense of our federal government’s budget and our nation’s economy, he has never found a bloated interest of the Left that he never liked, except for tax cuts for working class and middle class Americans. He has declared “We’re not broke!” while this country still faces a multi-trillion dollar national debt. He admitted “I’m sorry Solyndra happened”, yet he insists that global warming is an issue which the federal can and must do something about.  To this day, he stands by doing nothing for the retired teachers and police officers of Indiana, (whose pensions were pilfered to save General Motors), yet he also admitted “I don’t know” about his own cap and trade bill, steroid laws, and the same GM bankruptcy and bailout.

Last month, Congresswoman Waters showcased a documentary on the War on Drugs for some of her constituents, which she described as an assault on minorities (for once, she’s right, but not "right" in the right way politically on anything else). Other interests (more and more of Main Street) have rightly deemed the “War on Drugs” a government-funded assault on our liberties, livelihoods, and privacy, all at taxpayers’ expense. Republican Richard Nixon started this terrible program, but if a Democratic President were willing to stop it, at least he would be making a step in the right direction.

So, I have near polar opposition to Congressional members Waters and Waxman. Yet now I learn that Congresswoman Waters and I agree on one thing:  end the War on Drugs. By the way, so does conservative-libertarian radio host Larry Elder, “National Review” Founder William F. Buckley, and even retired Republican Congressman David Dreier of San Dimas (who is good friends with Congressman Waxman, even if they are from opposing parties).

Wouldn’t it be great if Congresswoman Waters and Congressman Henry Waxman stood together on the floor of the House of Representatives and advanced a bill defunding the Drug Enforcement Agency? Better yet, Waxman and Waters should partner with libertarian-leaning Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) in the US Senate, who wants to defederalize the enforcement of controlled substances. “Defederalize” merely means getting the federal government out of prosecuting drug related crimes, and thus Colorado, Washington, and any other state can declassify any drug they want.

Congressman Waxman complains about the growing number of panga boats washing up along the Palos Verdes Coast (he forgot about the eleven felons who washed up along El Segundo Beach, too). As for the incarceration of minorities and the growing gang problems in our inner cities, which Waters is worried about, nothing would bring down the crime and corruption than ending the War on Drugs, decriminalizing the substances, and thus robbing drug cartels and inner city crime syndicates of a significant source of revenue.

Imagine Maxine Waters screaming: “I think the DEA should go straight to hell!” Congressman Waxman would not have to say “I’m sorry” for not doing something about the waste of tax dollars. Maybe he can chant “We’re not broke!” once he and his liberal colleagues begin decommissioning these outrageous bureaucracies which do more harm than good. Without a doubt, Big Pharma, one of Waxman’s key donors, would be pleased, since they could take the opportunity to appropriate, regulate, and distribute the controlled substances in a controlled fashion, and make a little money, too.

Henry Waxman and Maxine Waters: working together to end the DEA – that would be something worth celebrating.