Saturday, September 26, 2009

Unintended consequences...


In the September 29th, 2008 blog entry, Quick Reminder, this blogger bemoaned the fact that our elected representatives (of all stripes) "often act on minimal information and with a cavalier disregard of the intricacies of the matter at hand" and that this often results in "unintended consequences!" Well, this continues to be the modus operandi of most of them. Some recent examples:
  • The recent fuss over ACORN (see here, here, and here) led to a mass stampede in the House and Senate, where overwhelming majorities (Senate: 83-7; House 345-75) voted to "defund" the group. Now, apparently, in their haste to do this (some to score political points, others to inoculate themselves against possible 'contagion' from erstwhile friends) the law they passed which calls for the denial of government contracts to entities that have "filed a fraudulent form with any Federal or State regulatory agency" may affect any number of large defense contractors, see: Salon Radio: Rep. Alan Grayson on de-funding corrupt defense contractors
  • Another recent example involves the recent change in Massachusetts, with the Democratic-majority legislature giving Governor Deval Patrick the authority to appoint a replacement to the Senate seat previously held by Senator Edward Kennedy. This was "necessary" as an unintended consequence of the last time they monkeyed with the replacement process...
Here's an easy prediction that's guaranteed to come about: one or two years after health care reform (or, rather, health insurance reform) gets passed, our Senators and Representatives will be complaining about some aspect of the delivery system and demanding corrective legislation, and that the issue(s) they are complaining about will be a direct (but unintended) consequence of the earlier reform... Another easy prediction: when this happens they will eschew all ownership and responsibility for the issue, and will seek to lay the blame elsewhere...

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