>Lawmakers should have been more careful about which mergers and purchases they approved. Many of the issues we face with big tech is because lawmakers are to i

>Lawmakers should have been more careful about which mergers and purchases they approved. Many of the issues we face with big tech is because lawmakers are to inept at seeing the long term consequences of the deals they themselfs approved. Lawmakers (in the US, the House of Representatives and Senate) have no role in approving or disapproving specific transactions. In case you aren't American and are unaware, unlike many (but not all) nations, sitting legislators (lawmakers) may not serve in both the Legislative and Executive Branches at the same time. As such, since it's the Executive Branch that executes and enforces the laws passed by the Legislative Branch, lawmakers have no say as to how the law is executed/enforced -- except by changing/repealing/passing laws. Instead, the Executive Branch, in these cases, the Federal Trade Commission[0], the Department of Justice[1] and perhaps other regulatory agencies (such as the FCC[2], FDA[3], etc.) that have a particular industry under their purview make such decisions. [0] https://www.ftc.gov/ https://www.ftc.gov/ [1] https://www.justice.gov/ https://www.justice.gov/ [2] https://www.fcc.gov/ https://www.fcc.gov/ [3] https://www.fda.gov/ https://www.fda.gov/