The Deliberative Process

There is a saying that goes ‘Want it bad, get it bad.’ An early version of the same sentiment is ‘Haste makes Waste.’

When the Founding Fathers drafted our Constitution they deliberately split the real powers of government (the legislature) into two separate houses: the Senate and the House of Representatives. Neither has the authority, except in a few narrow issues, to act alone. This was done so that laws could not be passed in haste. A law must first go through committees in each house, be debated on the floor in each, then passed, and then must be reconciled in joint committee between each house, and then once a law is passed, money must actually be set aside and the executive branch authorized to spend it on the issue at hand.

The idea was that every proposed law would be thoroughly debated before it became law.

Furthermore, the process for changing the Constitution, and the various state constitutions, was deliberately made slow and cumbersome so that no one would in haste change something that had been carefully thought out and debated many years earlier.

Now we see two examples of people trying to act quickly, when there is no demonstrable value to the citizenry for precipitous action. The issue is healthcare. We are told that our healthcare is in crisis, yet 85% of our population is insured, and 100% has access to emergency care. All our poor are covered by Medicaid, and there are scores of medical centers around the country that provide comprehensive care for free to those who cannot afford it. While note ideal, it works.

But Washington says something needs to be passed right now, we cannot debate it any longer, we need to act.

Why can’t we debate it any longer? Why can’t we expect our Senators and Congressmen to actually read the legislation before them and engage in a detailed debate that actually addresses all the major issues? That is what the Constitution directs. That is what they were elected to do? Why don’t they want to do that?

And meanwhile in Massachusetts, the Governor has apparently decided that, because of this legislative crisis in Washington, a purely partisan response since there are more than enough Senators to engage in and vote on any legislation, but not the 60 needed for one party to steamroll the other and end deliberation, he – the Governor – will act to circumvent the Massachusetts Constitution and appoint someone to fill the seat of the late Senator Kennedy.

Senator Kerry, the now senior Senator from Massachusetts said: “This is what Ted Kennedy wanted, what Governor Patrick and I wanted, and I firmly believe it’s what people in Massachusetts want, because big votes on everything from health care to climate change are being taken now, not in five months.’’

In other words, ‘we must make haste.’

I read yesterday that the Environmental Protection Agency’s new blueprint of industrial regulation is 18,000 pages long; 18,000 pages of regulation created by a bureaucracy without any Legislative oversight (that is, no elected officials had a hand in it) and this because we have – in haste – given the EPA authorities without adequate debate, without due deliberation.

Due deliberation, in-depth public debate, was placed in the Constitution to prevent tyranny, to prevent the Legislature from acting so fast that it made grave mistakes that deprived people of their liberties, either willfully or negligently. We should all be very concerned. We should all consider writing our Congressmen and Senators and insisting simply that they thoroughly debate each of these issues.