By Mike Kole Libertarian Writers’ Bureau http://www.writersbureau.org

I always have to remember to take a deep breath when examining laws being proposed by our grand Legislature. I detest most of new legislation on table, but have to forgive our representatives in House and Senate for it. After all, writing laws is what a Legislature does, and if they don’t write enough laws, it can begin to look like they’ve been loafing.

Call me strange, but I rather prefer a Legislature that goofs off and under produces new laws. I’m convinced we have enough of them already, and agree with Mark Twain, who famously said that no man’s life, liberty, or property is safe while Legislature is in session.

Mainly, that is because no lawmaker wants to look like a slacker, especially so soon after an election. It’s bad form. As a result, we get some hideous proposals that I would chalk up as an effort to hide behind some broad good intention while looking meaningful, or at least busy.

House Bill 1508 is a textbook case as one such proposal.

Representative Vanessa Summers, an Indianapolis Democrat, has introduced legislation that would prohibit use of cell phones, making exceptions for hands-free devices and for emergency use. The proposed fine for violations of law would be up to $25.

The intent is to make our streets a little less hazardous. We have all groused at idiot guilty of driving while in conversation that cut us off or made us miss a light, and we have cursed driver and his cell phone. Summers’ proposal takes its cue from similar laws passed in New York and District of Columbia. As everyone knows, these cities now have safest streets in world.

This law is rife with problems, from practical application to higher concerns of individual liberty.

I know four friends, right off top of my head, who would gladly pay up to $25, as a cost of doing business. They think this highly of each and every one of their calls. $25 is no kind of deterrent for these people.

Before I was forty years old I also thought that six percent taken from me every week was outrageous and should be eliminated, but that was my youth and selfishness speaking. Today as someone over fifty my attention turns towards fixing what is advertised as broken.

I say begin with what is already there. There are according to some over half a million disability appeal cases pending in one of already largest agencies in Federal Government. Most will be paid at an extreme cost to current Trust Fund; these costs are in name of expert witnesses, being doctors, occupational specialists and attorneys to tune of hundreds of dollars sometimes thousands per case. Remember longer an attorney delays case more they get in settlement when claimant is paid. The fee is twenty five percent of back payment to claimant.