Henry Waxman’s Legacy

by Robert Rosebrock

LOS ANGELES – Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills) is seeking a 19^th consecutive term in Congress. When you read the edited “full biography” on his website,* it portrays him as a living legend and the most thoughtful and caring visionary in U.S. government.

But when you learn the unedited biography of the polarizing Congressman, you will know that Henry Waxman is one of the most powerless, visionless and uncompassionate public servants in American history.

Henry’s version boasts a political career full of power, responsibility and seniority as chairman of major committees that dominate our nation’s legislation and essentially controls the way we live.

In the 1,032 word bio that spares no over-glorification of Henry Waxman’s career in Congress, not once is the word “Veteran” mentioned.

In fact, there’s no mention of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) or the Los Angeles National Veterans Home, aka the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System.

Nonetheless, the largest VA in the nation has been in Henry Waxman’s Los Angeles Congressional District during his entire 38-year career.

In a letter dated October 7, 2005 to James Nicholson, then-Secretary of the VA, Mr. Waxman writes: “According to the California Department of Veterans Affairs, more veterans live within fifty miles of the West Los Angeles VA Center than 42 other states combined.”

Think about this. Mr. Waxman is not only entrusted to oversee the largest VA facility in the nation, but this responsibility includes more Veterans living within fifty miles of the VA center than 42 other states combined.

So, why doesn’t Henry boast about this in his “full biography?”

Is he ashamed of this rare and prestigious honor to serve those who have served us?

What’s Henry hiding?

Well, it’s quite obvious that Henry is concealing the most disgraceful political record in American history, bar none.

Henry was elected to Congress in 1974 and took his oath of office four months before the fall of Saigon that ended the Vietnam War in May, 1975.

Within his Congressional District is the responsibility to oversee nearly 400 acres of property that was exclusively deeded to the Government of the United States in 1888, “to be permanently maintained as a National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers.”

This magnanimous Gift from two families was preceded by an 1887 Act of Congress that mandated federal law guaranteeing that this land would be permanently maintained for disabled and homeless Veterans, ensuring that there would never be a “homeless Veteran” in Los Angeles because these hallowed grounds would always be maintained as a “Home” for their sole benefit.

In a letter dated September 11, 2007 to the Wall Street Journal, Congressman Waxman wrote: “Here are the facts: After the Civil War, the federal government began to construct national soldiers’ homes for disabled and homeless war veterans. Soon after Congress enacted legislation in 1887 to authorize construction of the first soldiers’ home in the west, a patriotic Californian family donated 388 acres in Los Angeles for this purpose. But there was a catch – the legal deed requires that the federal government maintain the property permanently for veterans. Today that 388-acre campus houses the largest VA health care center in the nation and serves more than 300,000 veterans.”

Henry unwaveringly confirms his own entrusted responsibility, so there’s no question about the magnitude of his fiduciary duty to honor it.

But instead of enforcing the Congressional Act and legal Deed that would provide safe shelter for Veterans to heal from their war injuries, non-Veteran Waxman ignored this noble duty and served his wealthy constituents by allowing this sacred trust to be leased for a public dog park, a public community park, a public golf course, public entertainment theaters, private school playgrounds, hotel laundry facilities, used car storage, etc.

Meanwhile, disabled and disadvantaged Veterans who pledged their lives to defend our nation while Henry was attending UCLA law school, were exiled from their legally deeded Home under his “watch” and forced to live homeless and hungry in back-alley squalor as Henry lived in luxury and ate at the public trough.

Under Henry’s watch, the biggest land-fraud scam in American history took place while some of the most heinous crimes against humanity were being committed on American soil — inhumane crimes of forced homelessness and neglect against disabled and disadvantaged Veterans.

There’s no expression low enough to describe his disgraceful public service that he shamelessly perpetrated upon the very men and women who defended our nation’s freedom and safety.

To call Henry Waxman a traitor would be an understatement and tantamount to calling Benedict Arnold one of America’s greatest patriots.

Henry did not serve in the military but he protested the Vietnam War while his peers were serving with honor.

It’s been 37 years since the Vietnam War ended, yet today 47% of our homeless Veterans are still of the Vietnam era.

Tragically, instead of providing supportive housing for those who sacrificed so greatly, Henry Waxman allowed the Los Angeles Veterans Home to become run down and left in shambles.

Numerous buildings have been vacant for decades except for the safe sheltering of rodents and other wildlife that have found their way inside.

In Henry’s “full biography,” it states that as Chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, he formed a Special Investigations Division that prepared hundreds of investigative reports on local and national topics for Members of Congress.

Make no mistake; Henry Waxman had full power in Congress to investigate anyone about anything or everything that the government is involved with.

Instead of investigating how Los Angeles became the capital for homeless Veterans when this is the largest VA Home in the nation, Henry investigated professional baseball players for supposedly using steroids, for manufacturers using lead in toys, for e-mail use in the White House, the construction of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, etc.

Henry also investigated Walter Reed Military Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland regarding health reforms, but he never once investigated the Los Angeles VA in his Los Angeles Congressional District regarding the misappropriation of Veterans land and facilities and the abuse and neglect of 20,000 disabled and homeless Veterans.

In 2006, “Time Magazine” ran an article titled “The Scariest Guy in Washington.”** Here’s how they described Henry Waxman: “When it comes to putting powerful people on the hot seat, there’s no one tougher and more tenacious than veteran California Congressman Henry Waxman.”

If you talk to the average Military Veteran in Los Angeles, here’s how he or she will describe Mr. Waxman: When it comes to providing disabled and homeless Veterans with safe shelter, there’s no one weaker and more faltering than non-Veteran Henry Waxman.

In Henry’s bio version of extolling decades of public service, he essentially proclaims to be a compassionate visionary with unparalleled seniority and power.

In a recent “Los Angeles Times” article by Steve Lopez titled, “Poor care for veterans becomes campaign issue,” Henry confessed that he “has not devoted himself to Veterans issues” …. “doesn’t have a particular vision for how to best use the VA property” … and that “he wants some leadership,” because it’s obvious that he’s no leader.

In nearly 40 years of public service in a Congressional District that includes the largest VA in the nation in a city that has the largest homeless Veteran population in the nation, Henry Waxman coldly and callously ignored the helpless cries of tens-of-thousands of disabled and destitute Veterans who were appallingly sentenced to a life of homelessness.

Henry Waxman voted for every war budget over the past decade, costing more than a trillion dollars to send our men and women into harm’s way. (This is not mentioned in Henry’s “full biography”)

Let the record reflect that for nearly four decades Henry Waxman didn’t appropriate a single dollar to shelter disabled homeless Veterans at the Los Angeles VA. He didn’t provide a single tent, one cot, a sleeping bag or a simple blanket for homeless Veterans.

Nothing! Zero! Nada!

Instead of building Veteran housing at the VA, Henry built Los Angeles into our nation’s capital for homeless Veterans, estimated to be at least 20,000 with 8,000 chronic homeless Veterans.

To paraphrase the late great Paul Harvey … Now you know the rest of Henry’s biography.

For those who live in California’s 33^rd Congressional District, please vote on behalf of 20,000 disabled and homeless Veterans in Los Angeles and deliver poetic justice by completely ignoring Henry Waxman and voting for his opponent, Independent Bill Bloomfield.

God Bless America and the Veterans Revolution!

• Waxman website
• “The Scariest Guy in Washington.”
• “Poor care for veterans becomes campaign issue”
• www.latimes.com

Robert Rosebrock

U.S. Army, 1965-67, Schofield Barracks, Hqs., U.S Army, Hawaii. Director, The Veterans Revolution, Captain, the Old Veterans Guard, and Director, We the Veterans.