Commentary: On Second Thought - You don't always get what you pay for

If you have nothing nice to say, don't say nothin' at all.

If I had a dime for every time my mother silenced me with this little chestnut, I wouldn't be in this terribly awkward position. I'd be retired and, with any luck, kickin' it old school with P. Diddy in South Beach.

The problem is: I have nothing even remotely nice to say about what's going on in Maryland right now, but my livelihood rather depends on me saying stuff.

Defy my mother, who remains more than hale enough to deliver memorable punishment, or forgo food and shelter, which, even after all these years, I still find irresistibly attractive. Tough call.

Hoping that she'll hold her tongue to improve the cash value of her birthday present next week, I'm going to say stuff.

I'm bitterly frustrated, which is interesting only insofar as other Marylanders feel the same. And I believe our number is legion.

While many Marylanders were opening their hearts and wallets to help victims of the devastating tsunami on the other side of the world, our elected officials were down in Annapolis wasting our money on a special session.

Even with a week to reflect on the outcome, I've yet to figure out what was so special about it. In fact, it was a lot like the last two regular sessions of the General Assembly - sound bites and finger- pointing, signifying nothing more than a veto, and maybe an override.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, consider yourself fortunate (unless, of course, you missed it because you were busy taking in a live performance of Ashlee Simpson, the vocally challenged singer who was caught lip-synching on Saturday Night Live and then, shortly thereafter, was justly booed by some 70,000 people following her performance this week at the Orange Bowl; the schadenfreude tingles when it touches my frontal lobe).

To open and staff the State House for last week's two-day, oh-so- special session, we taxpayer's spent a reported $80,000. What did we get? The governor and legislature submitted bills that they each knew the other would reject.

It's only a matter of time before MasterCard's marketing team swoops in and uses the event for its next priceless commercial.

The good news is that very little was at stake, unless, that is, you consider the availability of professional medical treatment, you know, important.

Our elected officials seem to believe the issue of medical malpractice insurance is pretty important. Otherwise, they would have waited until next week, when the regular session begins, to take on the rapidly rising rates doctors pay for malpractice insurance.

So, during a week traditionally devoid of business and full of leisure, the week between Christmas and New Year's, they came together. Time was running out. On Jan. 1, insurance bills were due for most Maryland doctors, and they were, on average, 33 percent more than last year's. Reports were circulating that many physicians would be forced out of business, leaving us without care or in long lines awaiting treatment from the handful of docs who stuck it out.

We Marylanders had reason to be grateful that our lawmakers, 188 of them part-timers no less, were sacrificing vacation time to wrestle with a crisis more complex than Michael Jackson's surgical history. They were putting the people first.

That notion proved as illusory as a JLo romance, and just as fast. Politics, not the people, were put first.

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. intends to veto the legislature's bill because it includes a 2 percent tax increase on HMOs. Marylanders sent Ehrlich to the governor's mansion because he vowed to push slots and hold the line on taxes, so Ehrlich last week was doing the will of the people.

The legislature rejected Ehrlich's proposal at least in part because it included tort reform deleterious to a key constituency, trial lawyers. Marylanders elected more Democrats than Republicans to the General Assembly because, among other reasons, they represent the little people (and the trial lawyers who fight for little people in court).

So, in effect, we got what we voted for. We asked for a divided government, and boy/girl (political correctness, you know) did we get it.

The regular legislative session is likely to open next week with multiple veto overrides. Nothing says I'm willing to work with you quite like vetoes and veto overrides. It's the political equivalent of Valentine's Day cards made of brick.

We may have gotten what we voted for, but we certainly didn't get what we paid for last week. If our elected officials believe it's preferable to preserve political orthodoxy than to forge compromises, however imperfect, then they shouldn't get together for these special occasions, for it's especially galling to those of us who have better things to do with our money.

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