Let's fix unemployment-insurance problems first creating new ones

The meltdown at the state Department of Employment Security ought to teach us a lesson. It’s easy for government to create problems, not so easy for the Legislature to come back in and clean up the mess.

We ought to keep this in mind as the Legislature debates some of the big, bold ideas our liberal colleagues are bringing to the table this year — for an income tax, big increases in gas prices, greater government control of industry, and many, many more. Many of these policies are so big and so sweeping we can be sure they would open a Pandora’s box of unintended consequences.

When hundreds of...