Thomas Donlan‘s latest editorial commentary for Barron’s delves into unintended consequences of the successful use of antibiotics.

Nowadays, the process of spreading resistance compounds like payments on a bad debt: Bacteria resistant to one antibiotic have been fought with other medicines, to which the target bacteria also become resistant.

In 2013, the Food and Drug Administration published new guidelines for reducing the quantity of antibiotics fed to animals, and last month President Barack Obama asked for $1.2 billion to be added to the budget to conduct research about resistant microbes.

The Obama administration is to be commended for caring about the problem, but the president’s solution is not as welcome as his concern. He combines a program to print up another billion for a government investment in new antibiotics with tighter regulation of hospitals and health-care providers.

As anyone who drives the nation’s highways knows, planning, setting priorities, and long-term investing are not the federal government’s strong suits.

Word has spread widely that antibiotics aren’t very profitable. When they work, they work so well that patients stop needing the drugs. Drug companies seem to prefer working on drugs to relieve chronic conditions, which offer payments over a lifetime of dependence, and much higher revenues.

This is an easy case: People have long since lost any shred of gratitude to the drug companies’ scientists and financiers. Politicians have been telling citizens for decades that Big Pharma is a tribe of monopolists and price gougers. And the politicians put their power where their mouths are—for example, making it easier for generic drug companies to exploit the inventions of others and harder for real inventors to accumulate the profits that finance future research.

Moreover, the past 50 years have seen continual tightening of federal regulations governing safety and efficacy, with important side effects that are rarely recognized: New drugs cannot come to the market without long series of trials that increase the expense and the risk in developing new drugs.

The problem of profitability is actually a problem of heavy-footed bureaucracy. Big Pharma and start-ups alike need more profits, not more restrictions.

The better role for the government is in education. People should not demand antibiotics for common colds, and doctors should not write prescriptions just to get them out of the office. Insurance companies also should have an interest in curbing inappropriate treatments. Antibiotics are too cheap, and the cost of fighting serious infections without effective antibiotics will be very high.