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So the thumbnail for this is old Phil Connors from the movie Groundhog Day, one of my favourite movies of all time. Great scene in that film where Phil is standing there and he says, "Well it's Groundhog Day, again." And if you know the context of the movie, he ends up in Groundhog Day repeating each day and it's a scene where he's a little cynical because he's just being through it so many times that he's getting tired of it. The reason for the thumb, as can be seen, “well it's bad Western legislative idea day again". It just seems like, it's weird to me to be living in Thailand at this time. We have come off now an era of transition, and we are now sort of back to the kind of Parliamentary System that people were used to from some 15 - 20 years ago. It is an odd sort of return to mean if you will; it's just sort of the way that the political cycles go, but here we are. But the interesting thing is is over the course of call it a decade, Thailand was here sort of hermetically sealed in here and a lot of the worst ideas from the West - although God knows not COVID - but we were kind of immune from it because it just sort of wasn't coming here. We didn't have the sort of influencers or whatever you want to call it that were in the country, that were sort of bringing on a lot of these what I can only describe as bad ideas. 

And what I find really funny and getting into Omnibus legislation to begin with, I mean for those who really keep an eye on our liberties and things in America, Omnibus Legislation as it pertains to our Congress, to our House of Representatives and Senate, anybody that knows anything, should hold their nose at the notion of Omnibus Legislation because we all know that the devil is in the details and when they pass these huge Bills that they literally tell us, "well we have got to pass it before we can read it." I think Pelosi said that at one point, I think about, I don't know, some terrible idea at some point that they passed into law through one of these, again, these Acts that will be hundreds of pages long, and different people will have stuck different things in there and the question is, "did anyone read all of this? Does anybody actually understand all the ramifications of these things?" and the answer is No oftentimes, and so that's the reason people have a problem with Omnibus Legislation. It is also the reason that special interests and things love them, because they can hide all kinds of pork in terms of spending, and all kinds of things that we may not want in our lives, but they get passed because nobody is really looking. It's like that movie Lord of War: "Those that know don't care, and those that care don't know." And that ends up being the problem with this kind of Omnibus Legislation. 

So the reason for the Groundhog Day thing is it's just like the umpteenth time, it is like OECD which I have got my serious problems with Trump on certain issues but on OECD he was dead right. It was a threat to American sovereignty, he wrote an Executive Order to that effect and he ended it. And unfortunately, I feel for Thailand because I don't think this is good for the country long term, but it's just sort of another bad Western idea that we have seen crop up since basically August of 2023. Now I think back then - especially like the Digital Wallet, that was being put forward by certain specific actors - but again this stuff, where does this come from? 

And what I'm talking about here is, quoting directly from a recent article in the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Thailand targets major investment reform. Quoting directly: "Why are many countries adopting omnibus laws? Quoting directly: "The main reason is the need to reform a large number of laws quickly." Well it's the Chesterton's Fence analogy. When you come along and you are on a road and there's a fence that intersects the road, and you say, "Well we need to remove that fence." Probably a good idea to understand why that fence was there to begin with. I really am always hesitant especially lately, especially here in Thailand, when anything is ever sort of brought up, "oh it's great; we have got to do it fast because it's new and good." They tried to do that to us and railroad us with that Digital Wallet where we were going to go 20% more in debt-to-GDP ratio for a bunch of digital magic bean tokens that were going to be tracked and traced and you could only spend it on certain things in a certain perimeter around your house, so just to begin with, I'm always skeptical of, "oh, because we want to do a bunch of stuff real fast." Well what are you trying to do? And by putting it through in an Omnibus way, it's all real vague because there is so much going on. In trial practice terms they call that 'choking you with discovery'. You're in a trial and the other side says they want to see some information, and you just throw piles of paper at them and say, "well sift through it, it's in there somewhere." Very similar, it's analogous to pushing an Omnibus Bill through where nobody has read it and they say, "well we're going to pass it. if you want to read it", and then you don't have anything to hang your hat on in opposing it because nobody knows what's in it, because it's so vast and trying to figure out the way it connects is also difficult as well. 

That said, quoting further: "Many countries have accumulated large numbers of outdated laws creating complex approval procedures that hinder investment." Investment in what? Could it be a restricted occupation or a restricted industry that it may be in Thailand's interest to keep that restriction there? And are we examining that before just passing, again Chesterton's Fence. Are we taking out the fence before we know why it's there?

Quoting further: "In some cases, different laws even contradict each other." That's fair. Now in that regard, yeah. I think we need to pass laws to keep that from happening, but does it have to occur in an Omnibus piece of legislation which has a bunch more stuff that again, it's hard to say that even anybody knows what's actually being passed until it's been at least formally, or in some formal sense we have been put on notice of it being imposed upon us? Again that's the problem with these Omnibus Laws. And these are real problems. If you go look at American Twitter or anything, the conservative movement, you bring up Omnibus Legislation, people that are in the know will start on a rant of why it's not a good thing. 

Quoting further: "Thailand has yet to formally enact an Omnibus Law, but there have been similar concepts where legislation was introduced to address multiple regulatory issues at once." Fair enough, but once again we have never done this, so it begs the question why should we start now? Honestly. I mean and the other thing is to make it easier for Parliament to do what? Why don't you pass these pieces of legislation individually based on the issue that is pertinent to the legislation? What are you doing up there? I keep asking this question. Parliaments go into session and then they all like want to play like it's like 'politics prom' and they just kind of talk, but they don't do anything. But now they want to run everything through like a woodchipper, and then we just have to wade to the other side of some Omnibus Legislation to see what the actual ramifications are. That's the problem with it. That's why it's like Groundhog Day. I'm seeing all the bad ideas that have made frankly America worse over the time that I've been out in Thailand, now being brought out here to Thailand and, "oh, this is a great new invention." No, it's probably not. 

Quoting further: "The United States provides a clear example of Omnibus legislation in its government budgeting process." We are looking at the American’s budgeting process? People that run that operation, the Office of what, is it OMB, Office of Management and Budget, I mean they will even tell you, "we're in the red!" How is that an example? That's an example of what not to do. That is an example of passing so much legislation that now we have unfunded liabilities that we don't even know exactly what they are, so we end up in a situation where Elon Musk is telling us that magic money printing machines are used to cover the spread. It is not good policy, and it leads to really bad outcomes. And there is probably a reason why Thailand has never had an Omnibus Bill and Thailand has always managed to balance its budget and even in the darkest of times, their currency has stayed fungible on the open market. There may be a reason why this has never been done here. 

Quoting further: "In the US, the federal budget must normally pass through several appropriations bills, typically around 12 separate laws covering agencies such as the Department of Defense, Transportation, Agriculture and Energy." And we the people don't ever get to know exactly what's being budgeted to each of these agencies because it goes through this convoluted Omnibus process and we don't get to see it until it's already done, till the sausage is already made and the funds are already going out. Quoting further: "However because Congress often cannot pass these bills individually" - I read that again - "because Congress often cannot pass these bills individually on time" - and I love how they say "on time". No, the operative wording there, that's the reason for Parliamentary Session; that's the reason for Congressional session. The Founders put that in there on purpose. If you can't pass it in a 90-day period, it is probably not a law we want to begin with, so they do it through this Omnibus stuff where nobody reads it and everybody gets to point fingers at everybody else, but we the actual people that have to fund this through our taxes, we are the ones that get stuck with it, and there is a reason they want to like band it all together, is because it wouldn't be passed individually.

It's sort of like if you go back to the movie The Big Short, Ryan Gosling, when they are talking about how they move all of these real estate investment, these mortgage backed investments, mortgage backed securities, MBS's and they had all these like low-grade B level debt, and they would just sort of bundle it together with some better debt and then they would say that the whole thing was better because it was bundled together, and that's what led to the whole crisis was because in there were basically mortgages that shouldn't have been written to begin with. It is similar to this situation. In there would be Bills that the people would not otherwise want individually, and therefore it begs the question, "why are we putting up with it because they just threw it into one big Omnibus Bill?"

The point I'm trying to make, if you can't already see it - maybe I'm beating a dead horse at this point - this is not something to do lightly. I don't think Omnibus Legislation; there is any exigent need for it in Thailand right now. I don't think the Thai Parliament should change its tradition of examining issues individually, and passing individual Acts as they pertain to those issues, because again, unless we want to end up in a budgetary situation like the United States - which can put up with it by being a reserve currency - Thailand is not in that same position, so maybe Omnibus Legislation isn't the best thing for us.