One of the fundamental laws of business is the The Law of the Unattainable Triad. In brief, three objectives in the development of anything are Price, Speed, and Quality -- you can achieve any two, but the third must be sacrificed. Of course public policy is not private enterprise and typically we see all three go out the window when Congress gets involved -- legislation takes a long time to create, is often more expensive than necessary, and usually pretty ineffective. This summer the House of Representatives is proving itself extraordinary by actually achieving one of the objectives. Unfortunately for the economy and the American people it is the wrong one -- speed.

This willingness to sacrifice price and quality first reared its ugly head in the non-debate surrounding the Waxman-Markey climate bill. Rather than take the time to create a piece of legislation which respected economic and global realities, the House forced through a deeply flawed bill which would impact the competiveness of the United States and -- as even its supporters admit -- would have little impact on global greenhouse gas emissions. They then patted themselves on the back for doing something, anything, and the nation breathed a sigh of relief when the Senate promptly put on the brakes.

Now it is health reform's turn. Once again the House has before it a deeply flawed bill; once again debate is being squashed; and once again attempts to fix the bill are being derailed. And once again this exercise in bad governance is to achieve the passage of something, anything, before an arbitrary deadline -- in this case the August recess. It is important to understand that the business community -- and everyone else for that matter -- recognizes that the health care status quo is not sustainable, but common sense dictates, as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid put it: "It's better to have a product based on quality and thoughtfulness rather than try to jam something through."

We need health reform, and we need to change the way we produce and use energy. These are big issues with big consequences -- for our economy and every other aspect of our society. We must choose quality and return on investment -- recklessly speeding ahead is not going to get us to the finish line; it will only send us into the wall.