During a House Oversight Committee hearing last week, ranking member Jamie Raskin criticized Arizona Republican Rep. Paul Gosar for suggesting that President Biden’s national drug control strategy is flawed because it fails to mention faith or God, calling Gosar’s suggestion unconstitutional and “preposterous,” The Hill reported.
In the hearing to reauthorize the Office of National Drug Control Policy last Thursday, Rep. Gosar noted that the words “faith” and “God” do not appear anywhere in the president’s 150-page National Drug Control Strategy.
The Arizona Republican argued that to be happy, “people need a purpose.” Gosar also appeared to suggest that the rise in drug overdoses is linked to a lack of faith in God and greater dependence on government assistance.
Gosar also quoted Democrat presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy saying, “unemployment kills” but the “left” only “offers endless benefits,” which he described as “dependency.”
The Republican Rep. said those who are dependent on government benefits only vote for “the providers of those benefits.” He argued that “to be happy,” humans need a purpose, including a job, the ability to provide for families, and “a belief in a creator.”
Accusing Rep. Gosar of wanting “some kind of religious test,” Raskin argued that a mention of faith or God in a national drug control strategy would violate the Constitution which prohibits Congress from making laws establishing a religion.
While he conceded that faith “can make a different” to the individual lives and paths of drug users in recovery, Rankin said the notion that the federal drug strategy is flawed “because it doesn’t put religion at the center” is “preposterous.”
