Congress + Baseball = Waste of Tax Dollars

There is something about baseball that gets me. It’s our national pastime. It’s the memories of going to games with my dad as a kid, staying up late listening to Jack Buck on the radio calling a winner for the St. Louis Cardinals, and the joy of taking my son to Busch Stadium for the first time when he wasn’t even a year old. No matter how old you are, baseball always brings out the kid in your soul.

Yesterday was not a good day for baseball. Arguably, one of the games greatest pitchers, Roger Clemens, was sitting before a Congressional committee defending allegations that he took steroids and human growth hormone. He was defending himself against cheating.

I would argue though that it was worse day for America. Not because our national pastime was being shown in a negative spotlight and not because one of baseball’s hero’s was being accused of cheating. It was because Members of Congress took close to 5 hours, and no telling how many dollars of our tax money, holding a hearing on this subject. Talk about government waste.

We have out of control Congressional spending, we have $3.00 per gallon gas, millions of Americans are losing their homes to foreclosure, a War on Terror, unsecure borders, jobs being shipped over seas and the best that our Congress can do is interview two people for 4 ½ hours about whether or not some multi-millionaire pitcher had a needle stuck in his butt.

I’m sorry, but I don’t see that as a wise investment of my tax dollars. If you want to look at what is to blame for soaring deficits, don’t blame the tax cuts, blame government waste, out of control spending and ludicrous committee hearings like we witnessed yesterday.

What Roger Clemens is accused of is serious. It calls into question his stats, his longevity and more importantly, his reputation. However, there were a total of 90 current and former baseball players named in the Mitchell Report. Our Congress chose to dipose three and interview one.

Congress has no business getting involved in this, especially the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. I know they oversee drug issues in the United States, but come on, if they wanted to look into drug use, this country has an out of control methamphetamine problem that could use up some of that valuable hearing time as well.

Committee Chairman Henry Waxman and Ranking Member Tom Davis should be ashamed. There is no blame to be laid at the feet of one party either, they both are at fault. When Congressman Davis chaired the committee in 2005, he held the first hearings on steroids with Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire and Raphael Palmeiro.

Major League Baseball and Commissioner Bud Selig should fix this problem, and they have already made steps to do so. They should govern themselves and fix their problems. If players break the law and are using illegal drugs, then they should be arrested and prosecuted just like any other dealer and user in America would. If baseball doesn't fix it's problems, then WE as fans should be the judge, jury and executioner.

I beg Congress to do some REAL work on REAL problems. If you want to look at drugs and abuse, then deal with abuse as a whole. Tackle the use of ALL drugs.

Get back to the people’s work and fix real issues that American’s need fixed. Surely I don’t need to remind you that all 435 of you in the House of Representatives are up for reelection in November. If you won’t do your job, hopefully American’s will put someone in that will.