ARKANSAS — Something happened in the state legislature last week which is a perfect example of how “experts” with an ax to grind use scare tactics to buffalo legislators out of voting for measures that they would otherwise be inclined to support. In this case, it was SB113 by our own State Senator Cecil Bledsoe. SB113 would have made sure that Arkansas taxpayers would not be footing the bill for abortions under the new health care fiasco, unless the life of the mother was in danger. Note that this bill would not stop the abortion, it would only stop the government from reaching into your pockets and mine to pay for it.

It looked like the measure could get a “do pass” recommendation from the legislative committee that was reviewing it.The chairperson of the committee asked if there might be someone from the insurance industry handy to speak about the potential effects of the bill.

Surprise! A member of the Insurance Commission, John Morris, stepped forward as if on cue. The conveniently handy “expert” reported to the committee that he had a “survey” from the industry which said that existing policies offered coverage for abortions in cases of rape and incest, too. He never did explain how that would impact the new batch of policies under the new health care plan, which was the point of the bill.

Nevertheless, the scare tactic worked. Immediately after Morris made his claims, a representative offered a “poison pill” amendment that added rape and incest to the circumstances whereby taxpayers could be charged for abortions in future health care plans.

This would leave the bill in violation of Arkansas’ own constitution, which denies all funding unless the mother’s life is in danger. Once the hostile amendment was tacked onto the bill, the sponsor in the House pulled it.

Later it was learned that the so-called “survey” of the industry was of one company! Now, if it was Arkansas Blue Cross then that might mean something, as they are the 800-pound gorilla in the business. But the one firm was Qual Choice. Not only do they represent somewhere around just 10 percent of the market, but they are heavily weighted toward public-sector employees rather than being representative of the whole market.

This kind of thing was not a one-time occurrence. This happens on a regular basis in our legislature. “Expert” witnesses come in and feed the legislators a line of baloney to scare them out of conservative votes. Any reformers whom you elect will not just have to fight against the left-leaning legislators, they will have to fight against an “expert” system that greatly outnumbers them and has shown a willingness to use misinformation and ill-founded disaster scenarios to scare legislators out of voting for common-sense legislation that their constituents would want and that they themselves would otherwise be inclined to vote for.

This system is dominated by special interests and those who favor big government and centralized control. The bureaucrats who run the departments want more power, control and money. Some of them will say just about anything to the legislators to keep them from voting for reductions in government. The problem is pervasive and ongoing.

Right now, the “experts” know that the legislators are only part timers who are term-limited. They know that for the most part, they can buffalo them. On the few occasions they catch on, there are no consequences.

That has to change. The only thing that is going to fix it is economics - make the costs of misleading the legislature so high that there is a disincentive to do it.

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Editor’s note: Mark Moore is the lead writer for an Internet blog on matters pertaining to Arkansas culture and government, Arkansas Watch and on Tuesday nights is the host of an Internet-based radio program, Patriots on Watch. He can be reached through The Times at [email protected].

Opinion, Pages 4 on 02/09/2011