We’re almost seven months into the Obama Administration’s first term and change is certainly occurring at breathtaking speed. In fact, much of the change is taking place too quickly. Stimulus spending, socialized health care and the cap and trade legislation are being railroaded through Congress, with Democrats frantically prognosticating that if we don’t act fast enough, our nation is doomed.
In fact, while Americans are concerned about the current state of our economy, health care system, and government, they would probably prefer slow, deliberative solutions to hasty, haphazard, short-term answers. That is exactly why America’s founders, in their eminent and prescient wisdom, designed a legislative process with innate checks and balances and elongated debate, thus tempering public passion demanding immediate, short-sighted reactions to problems.
The legislative process was crafted to allow for public input through committee hearings, public debate via representatives, and issuance of daily records so that the public can keep tabs on what their lawmakers are doing. But in their haste to transform America’s democratic republic into European socialism or worse, such contemplative processes—especially public oversight—will not benefit Democrats. In order to achieve their goals, laws must be passed and the fundamental structure of government changed with the American people knowing as little as possible.
The first example of this congressional haste was the massive stimulus bill that, now it turns out, didn’t deliver quite as much stimuli as promised. Whoops. As they contemplate stimulus part deux, maybe leaders in DC should take a more measured, slower approach when enslaving future generations with ungodly debt…but let’s not hold our breath in that vain hope.