Sunday, December 6, 2009

Doing “nothing” can be the best medicine

Question the wisdom or motives behind congressional legislation and you’ll get the predictable response: read the bill. Alright, let’s try to read Sen. Harry Reid’s healthcare bill, beginning with its 14-page Table of Contents.

There are nine separate Titles containing another 51 Subtitles and 23 additional Parts and Subparts. Underneath those various Parts, Subparts and Subtitles are 365 Sections and Subsections, one for each day in a year. The bill itself is 2074-pages long with each page containing 24 or 25 lines each, a total of nearly 51,000 lines. I won’t even guess at a word count.

Each line, Subtitle, Part, Subpart, Section and Subsection refers to others ad nauseam. In some instances, they reference separate articles of federal law, which must be just as confusing and unreadable as Reid’s healthcare “reform” proposal. Now, in order for us to believe we’re being properly represented we must accept that our Senators have read and understand this bill in its entirety. Sure, and you can see the Pacific Ocean from Lawrence, Kansas.

I’ll make no pretense about understanding this monstrosity. Furthermore, I don’t believe the four Senators whose names appear on the legislation understand it either. Further still, I think it was written that way on purpose.

First, Senators and Representatives need not understand their legislation; they will exempt themselves from it. Second, a bill understandable to them might also be understandable to us. And that isn’t how Washington operates. They prefer ambiguity and legalese that no one short of a Philadelphia lawyer can follow.

Even so, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) explained her vote to begin debate on this behemoth thusly, “It is clear to me that doing nothing is not an option.”

In fairness to Ms. Landrieu her procedural vote doesn’t mean she will support the legislation, and at least I can comprehend what she means. But I have to call her on the “doing nothing” part. Doing nothing can be the better alternative in a host of situations. Let’s examine a couple.

Let’s suppose you awaken in the middle of the night and notice an odd glow outside your window. Your neighbor’s garage is on fire. You call the fire department and, being a conscientious neighbor, out the door you go. The neighbor’s garden hose is close by, but the water isn’t working. Then you notice a gasoline container beside the shed in your neighbor’s back yard. Is it better for you to do nothing? Or, is it better for you to toss the gasoline on the fire?

Let’s try another one.

Black Friday just passed, so let’s assume you were out shopping. The aisles are packed with scrambling shoppers and howling kids. But one kid in particular gets your attention. This little boy just will not behave. He wants an X-box and will stop at nothing to get it.

His mother tries to assuage the situation with the typical “maybe Santa will bring it” line. But if that’s ever worked on a kid it’s news to me. His tantrum continues. Is it better for the mother to give the boy his way and instill in him the idea that his behavior is acceptable and profitable? Or, is it better for her to do nothing, thus letting the boy know that being a brat won’t serve his goal?

Am I exaggerating? Maybe a little. But both analogies illustrate that it can be far better to do nothing than to take actions that make bad situations worse, just for the sake of having “done something”.

Healthcare needs reform, just like the garage needs a fire department and the child needs a spanking. What healthcare doesn’t need is a “do something” fix that adds another layer of bureaucracy to an already bloated system. In regard to Reid’s bill, doing nothing is just what the doctor ordered.

No comments: