Because we’re human – and are prone to screwing things up?
The idea of admitting you screwed up – and starting over with something else entirely…is built into the entire timeline of human life.
As a kid – it is the “do-over”:
“A new attempt or opportunity to do something after a previous attempt has been unsuccessful or unsatisfactory.”
You hit the baseball into an overhanging tree limb? That’s interference. “Do-over.”
The idea carries forth into adulthood. In golf, it’s a “mulligan”:
“A free shot sometimes given a golfer in informal play when the previous shot was poorly played.”
A lot of DC plays a LOT of golf. But DC has never assimilated the mulligan – or the interference “do-over” – into its business practices.
DC pretends to know a lot of things about a lot of things. In reality, it knows very little about anything.
When it attempts to do little things – it screws up a little less gigantically. In target shooting, that’s “aim small – miss small”:
“An instruction phrase used by people who shoot guns. It means that, when looking at a target, you should pick a smaller point to aim for within that target. In that case, if you miss, you’ll still hit the target.”
But DC has for decades – screwed around for decades. So what were once small problems – have become HUGE problems.
DC then attempts HUGE, sweeping, fundamentally transformative changes to the things they let get so far out of hand.
And when DC “aims big” – it screws up HUGE.
And most important of all:
Far more often than not, life presents us with problems – that require ZERO DC action. We’re adults – we’ll figure it out.
That’s certainly how the Constitution designs DC. The Constitution gives DC very little to do. It then expressly says that all the things the Constitution doesn’t give DC to do?:
“(A)re reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
DC at its absolute worst? Is when it has zero business or reason to do anything – and it attempts to do EVERYTHING.
And so it was in 2011 – with the America Invents Act (AIA).
The US has (well, had) the greatest economy in the history of the world. A HUGE part of that – was our patent system.
Which allowed inventors to protect their inventions. Which allowed all of us to enjoy their inventions. Which allowed the economy to grow – for all of us.
Lather, rinse, repeat – for two-hundred-plus-years? And you have the greatest economy in human history.
Then DC screwed it all up.
First DC screwed up small. For a few years in the late 2000s, DC approved some patents – that they should not have approved.
The obvious solution? Aim small. Revise and improve your patent approval process.
But DC saw a HUGE cronyism opportunity.
Big Tech and Big Business wanted to gut the entire US patent system. So they could more easily steal everyone’s patents.
DC used the cover of their own patent approval errors – to aim HUGE. And fundamentally transform the US patent system.
Born was the AIA.
This was yet another DC “solution” – desperately running around in search of a problem. There was nothing wrong with the fundamentals of the US patent system. DC fundamentally transformed it anyway.
A decade-plus on, DC’s AIA has (further) gutted our economy.
Intellectual Property Crisis: U.S. Drops Out of the Top Ten in Innovation Ranking
Things have gotten SO bad, DC is now FINALLY forced to admit they screwed up.
A DC Frankenstein Finally Realizes His Monster – Is a Monster:
“‘Little did we know that our plan to stimulate job growth and innovation would be subject to abuse by giant tech companies.
“They have flocked to (AIA’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board) PTAB as a forum to overwhelm their smaller competitors through the sheer volume of resources they command.’
“‘Little did we know….’ Yes, DC’s denizens know so very little.
“If only they’d listened to actual inventors in the actual invention sector – who were telling DC this is EXACTLY what would happen….”
DC created the exceedingly awful PTAB. It now (FINALLY) admits the PTAB does the exact opposite of everything DC (claims it) intended it to do.
Oh: And the Supreme Court has ruled the PTAB to be unconstitutional. (Though, in fabulous DC fashion – the Court’s “solution” made it even worse and more unconstitutional.)
All the opportunities in the world for DC – to undo its interference. To do a “do-over” – by undoing what it did. To take a “mulligan.”
To paraphrase (and reverse the meaning of) Jesse Jackson:
“End it – don’t mend it.”
Repeal the exceedingly awful AIA – and with it, its exceedingly awful PTAB.
Except DC even fixes its errors wrong. Rather than repealing?
Tillis, Coons Introduce Landmark Legislation to Restore American Innovation
Here DC goes again. “Landmark legislation” – ?!? Would you guys PLEASE stop aiming huge – and missing even huger?:
“(B)ipartisan legislation that will restore patent eligibility to important inventions across many fields….”
You know the absolute best way – and the simplest – to “restore patent eligibility to important inventions across many fields…?”
Repeal the idiotic law you passed that took it away.
Since you so thoroughly screwed things up on the way in – I have ZERO confidence your “mend it – don’t end it” “landmark legislation” will do anything other than…thoroughly screw things up even worse.
End the interference. Do the “do-over.” Take the “mulligan.” Repeal.
Except human nature – is polluted with hubris. DC is drowning in it. Methinks The Swamp is filled with liquid hubris – not water.
So the same DC ego trip that caused the problem? Is preventing DC from actually fixing it.
We are instead supposed to trust the same DC know-nothings who screwed up the situation – to successfully tweak their screw up and make it better.
With none of the unintended consequences – they avalanched us with in their first go-round.
All of it in “landmark” fashion, of course.
I sincerely hope DC’s more difficult, non-repeal path chosen – results in real, substantive improvements to the titanic mess it made in the first place.
I remain…a little dubious.