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Saturday
March 20, 2010 Since 1922 |
Too much, too fast?
From staff reports
Baytown Sun Published June 18, 2009 You have to wonder if the federal government isn’t taking a shotgun approach to dealing with the nation’s weak economy — just fire in the general direction and hope the blast hits something.
With the administration just barely reaching six months old, major initiatives have already been rolled out, some, critics claim, without much time for debate, much less careful study.
For instance:
• The stimulus package was sped through Congress without giving lawmakers enough time to analyze the material. It was sent out of conference committee one day and voted on the next.
• The bailout of the financial industry was mired in controversy.
• Following the financial industry was the bailout plans for the auto industry. In this case the administration used the bailout to push its environmental stance by requiring an automaker to produce more “green” autos.
Now the administration is promising radical overhauls of the nation’s financial and health care systems.
Critics and proponents alike agree the financial system is broken. And most of us would agree that health care should be a major consideration for lawmakers.
However, too much, too fast might be the end result of legislation designed to revamp the systems.
One sweeping concern is that the proposed changes would, in fact, reverse a nearly 30-year trend of trying to decrease federal regulations.
The argument could be made that government has taken too much of a hands-off approach to the financial and health-care systems.
But to essentially change direction in essentially half a year?
President Obama said that the current financial regulations crafted in the 1930s had been “overwhelmed by the speed, scope and sophistication of a 21st century global economy.”
We wonder if the fix won’t be overwhelmed by the same sort of speed and scope.
Baytown Sun Published June 18, 2009 You have to wonder if the federal government isn’t taking a shotgun approach to dealing with the nation’s weak economy — just fire in the general direction and hope the blast hits something.
With the administration just barely reaching six months old, major initiatives have already been rolled out, some, critics claim, without much time for debate, much less careful study.
For instance:
• The stimulus package was sped through Congress without giving lawmakers enough time to analyze the material. It was sent out of conference committee one day and voted on the next.
• The bailout of the financial industry was mired in controversy.
• Following the financial industry was the bailout plans for the auto industry. In this case the administration used the bailout to push its environmental stance by requiring an automaker to produce more “green” autos.
Now the administration is promising radical overhauls of the nation’s financial and health care systems.
Critics and proponents alike agree the financial system is broken. And most of us would agree that health care should be a major consideration for lawmakers.
However, too much, too fast might be the end result of legislation designed to revamp the systems.
One sweeping concern is that the proposed changes would, in fact, reverse a nearly 30-year trend of trying to decrease federal regulations.
The argument could be made that government has taken too much of a hands-off approach to the financial and health-care systems.
But to essentially change direction in essentially half a year?
President Obama said that the current financial regulations crafted in the 1930s had been “overwhelmed by the speed, scope and sophistication of a 21st century global economy.”
We wonder if the fix won’t be overwhelmed by the same sort of speed and scope.