Sen. Marco Rubio and 15 Republican U.S. Senators introduced the CRACK Act on Thursday in an effort to "prohibit any funds from directly or indirectly purchasing, supplying, or distributing crack pipes or similar drug paraphernalia."
(I guess it was naive of me to think we Americans could be united against something as utterly insane as government-issued crack pipes. My mistake.)
This bill comes after news broke on Monday that the Department of Health and Human Services reportedly admitted that federal grants went toward "safe smoking kits/supplies, [...] pipes for users to smoke crack cocaine, crystal methamphetamine, and 'any illicit substance.'"
These grants were apparently in pursuit of "racial equity," by the way.
The report sent the Biden Administration (as well as Snopes and every other "fact-checker") into full damage control mode.
"No federal funding will be used directly or through subsequent reimbursement of grantees to put pipes in safe smoking kits," said Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and Office of National Drug Control Policy Director Rahul Gupta on Wednesday.
Please notice the verbiage from the Biden Admin: "will be used."
That statement is glaringly unspecific on whether the program would have provided pipes before the backlash. Personally, I think the ambiguity is intentional.
Even Snopes' "fact-check" on the report, which has gone through quite an embarrassing transformation this week, called Becerra and Gupta's statement a "newly-stipulated detail" (emphasis mine).
The ever-faithful gatekeepers at the New York Times and the Washington Post got left hanging by the Biden Administration on this one.
"The department did not respond when asked by The New York Times if glass pipes were ever allowable under the grant provisions," NYT reported.
"HHS did not answer a question from The Washington Post about whether the kits could include glass stems," WaPo reported.
Rubio and the Republican Senators went ahead and took Becerra's statement at face value and ran with it anyway.
"I am glad the Biden Administration acknowledges sending crack pipes to our nation's addicts is a bad idea," Rubio said.
"It is pure insanity to think the federal government would fund crack pipe distribution. This legislation will make certain the program can never pay for crack pipes, and given the Biden Administration's position I look forward to their vigorous support."
Are these GOP Senators exploiting a chance to score some easy dunks? Probably.
Do I care? No.
P.S. Now check out our latest video 👇
