DISGRACEFUL – AT 10:24 A.M. ET:  One of the favorite words in the liberal vocabulary is "McCarthyism."  It's the all-purpose curse, the catch-all one-word attack.  But Dems know how to practice "McCarthyism" with the best of them.  Joe would be proud:

Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, has summoned some of the nation's top executives to Capitol Hill to defend their assessment that the new national health care reform law will cost their companies hundreds of millions of dollars in health insurance expenses. Waxman is also demanding that the executives give lawmakers internal company documents related to health care finances -- a move one committee Republican describes as "an attempt to intimidate and silence opponents of the Democrats' flawed health care reform legislation."

On Thursday and Friday, the companies -- so far, they include AT&T, Verizon, Caterpillar, Deere, Valero Energy, AK Steel and 3M -- said a tax provision in the new health care law will make it far more expensive to provide prescription drug coverage to their retired employees. Now, both retirees and current employees of those companies are wondering whether the new law could mean reduced or canceled benefits for them in the future.

COMMENT:  Under what authority can a House committee chairman simply demand that corporate officers appear before him to defend a financial opinion?  What is the legitimate legislative purpose?

This is, as the unnamed Republican charges, pure intimidation.  It's designed to shut people up. 

Joe McCarthy, who actually turned out to be right on many things, but who went way over the line in behavior, used his committee chairmanship to threaten and frighten.  Now Henry Waxman is working from the same playbook.  "Waxmanism anyone?"

March 28, 2010