THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 25, 1994 TAG: 9409230029
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 49 lines
The 103rd Congress is winding down, and according to Washington conventional wisdom, which grades Congress on the volume of legislation passed, the session has not been a success.
Health-care reform is stalled, major revisions scheduled for environmental laws - such as those governing drinking water, endangered species, solid waste and making the Environmental Protection Agency a Cabinet position - have remained unfulfilled. Welfare reform didn't even get up to bat, and elite circles bemoan that ``gridlock'' has been the order of the day.
But the nation seems hardly worse for wear. In fact, the lack of new laws and the costs they impose has probably been one factor in sustaining the current period of mild economic growth.
According to some cost-benefit estimates, the less legislation passed, the better it is for the economy. A 1990 study by Michael Hazilla of American University and Raymond Kopp of Resources for the Future, which estimated the costs of the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act, found that real GNP was 6 percent lower in 1990 than it would have been if these laws had not existed. Many would argue the cost is worth it, of course, but few should pretend that there are no costs at all or that they are insubstantial.
Other experts have pointed out the high costs that health-care reform would have. In fact, the uncertainty surrounding health-care legislation and the attendant costs might well be one reason the recovery so far has been so anemic. No one wants to invest or hire people if potentially big health-care costs are coming down the pike.
In Congress, massive tomes of bills are passed with legislators not reading them and scarcely knowing their consequences. In such a climate, estimates of the costs of legislation are often far from reality. In 1965 it was estimated that Medicaid would cost about $1 billion annually. Its 1993 cost was $80 billion and rising.
As the federal government has grown, the legislation has also grown to encompass and regulate more and more of American life. Gridlock is a successful way of slowing down this government growth and the unforeseen negative consequences of much of the legislation passed by Congress. Unfortunately, gridlock also blocks sensible reforms from passing into law. But as those reforms are few and far between, gridlock doesn't seem like such a bad policy after all. by CNB