Dear America,
On Sunday, CBS ran a report on a law passed with overwhelming support in both houses of our Congress that tied the hands of a division of the Drug Enforcement Agency dedicated to interdicting supply of drugs that are being used illicitly or illegally at the lever of its supply, otherwise known as "diversion." The law was sponsored by two congressional representatives: Republican Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Republican Tom Marino of Pennsylvania. Its sponsor in The Senate was Orin Hatch of Utah, and Hatch still defends the law even though virtually everyone else defends it, albeit too late to prevent the damage it has already done. Now, Senator Claire McCaskill has introduced a repeal bill, but in this era of Republican hegemony in Congress, its passage cannot be certain.
In the aftermath of the 60 Minutes report, Marino has withdrawn his name from consideration for the position of "Drug Czar," for which Donald Trump nominated him in September, Trump accepting Marino's decision with a pat on the back professing that Marino is a "good man," a proposition brought into disputability by the report. Marino still hasn't filled out the preliminary form he must submit to the committee that considers presidential appointments for approval before the Senate votes on them, which raises questions in itself. Marino's cosponsor, Representative Blackburn, has disavowed the law and supports repeal, but Marino is yet to be heard from. Senator Hatch, on the other hand, claims that the DEA has all the enforcement powers it needs despite contrary statistics on the number of diversion actions taken by the diversion division of the DEA--oddly enough the DEA objected to the law at first but then inexplicably withdrew its objection--and the round condemnation of every other voice that has been raised since the televised report, and he adds that the contributions to his campaign fund from the pharmaceutical industry don't affect his opinion in the least. But there is a larger implication here. Set aside the venality of Congress as an institution and the possibility that impure motives on the parts of some may have entered into the passage of the law, the statute was aimed at a goal almost universally hailed by Republicans, and even some Democrats: deregulation.
You may remember the name Louie Gohmert, a Republican congressman from Texas. About four years ago during the presidential primaries of 2012, he stood up in The House chamber and proclaimed that the EPA had promulgated a regulation that would sanction a farmer for the dust he kicked up when driving on a dirt road that led up to his house. And then, Newt Gingrich repeated the claim during the period in which the Republican debates were occurring. However, as it turns out there is no such regulation or anything even resembling such. Gohmert is a joke everywhere but in Texas, but Gingrich is a leading light of the Republican Party, and hence a staunch advocate for deregulation...blind deregulation, it appears. That same dogmatic, ill-considered bias against regulation was what led Congress as a whole to pass the law with little dissent.
While the substance of this scandal is of its own import, the larger issue is a scandal in its own right, but it remains to be seen whether the members of Congress in both houses will rethink anything that has systemic implications. For one thing, its members act with a kind of deliberateness that could be confused for inertia...senators, who regard themselves as reserved and stolid rather than slow to learn and dilatory, in particular. In fact in this instance, I assume that the only reason for the prompt action of our legislators is that most of them are going face the electorate in just over a year, including about 1/3 of The Senate. In some circumstances, like this very public one, they experience a momentary revelation; they are the tail, not the dog.
So this is all an exhortation to you voters, America. You have your chance to chasten those who interdict progress with dogmatism and partisan rigidity. You have a year to tell your senators and representatives what you think...a year of heightened attention span. So bark if you love social justice and prudence.
Your friend,
Mike
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