A Common Policy Deceit - and What We Can Do About It

“I’ve got a bill to do just that!” the politician says from behind the podium. The crowd goes wild! Signs wave, fists pump, the politician basks in the adoration like a cat in the sun. There is a problem and our hero has penned a bill to solve it! We can all sleep easier tonight.

There’s just one little side effect in this perfect cure.

If this were a pharmaceutical ad, this is the part where I’d say at 75mph: Potential side effects include the bill not passing (effects 99% of bills) and the problem remaining unsolved.

In other words, “I’ve got a bill to do just that!” is often the marker of a politician who is a bit more hat than cowboy.

Let’s run the numbers: last Congress, 19,315 bills were introduced. And 614 of those (3%) became law.

It’s not a lie that the politician has introduced a bill. They have. And that bill might tackle this problem better than America’s finest linebacker.

But there’s a bit of deceit baked into the “I have a bill” line. Because Congress is passing so few bills and has a lower approval rating than bacterial meningitis, a politician can introduce a bill that’s DOA and blame Congress for not taking action rather than cop to the fact that they never planned to work the bill so it could become law.

So what can we do to gently, respectfully call their bluff here?

It’s refreshingly simple. When a politician says, “I have a bill to do just that,” a useful response is, “Great! What’s the strategy to get it passed?"