It’s these important, change-the-world kind of the bills that can’t be rushed. Even Obama admits these are not clean solutions. At best, stimulus and bailouts slow the decline and make the bottom a little softer. Since changing-the-world won’t happen overnight, what’s the fear in waiting a few more days to review and make sure we get the bill right. The stock market plummeted the day Obama signs the stimulus package.

This is how we get the Patriot Act because politicians don’t even have a chance to read the bills. And even when they read them, politicians often don’t understand them. From the DMCA to Communication Decency Act, laws get used and abused in ways Congress never imagined.

Even 72 hours seems short. Many bills can be hundreds of packages dealing with complex issues few people understand. Economists still barely agree on how to deal with stimulating an economy, so how do a group of elected officials without economic training expect to solve these problems overnight (or 3 nights). Slower isn’t as sexy and headline grabbing. Research and testimony and debate apparently aren’t either (I must be the only one). But fewer, better laws sounds like an improvement over mediocre, ineffective, and bad.