Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
An Earlier One-Off Post: My Emerging Political Views and Minarchism
Most Disturbing Obama Headline of the Day:
Nobel Peace Prize Winner Obama Reportedly Told Aides Last Year That He's "Really Good at Killing People"
Sheldon Richmond, The Humanitarian Shortcomings of the Affordable Care Act: Thumbs UP!
It's scary when I read the article of another classically liberal author on a topic and he's underscoring many of the same points I have; his article is original, of course, but I consider myself in good company. Sheldon points out Mises' observation about the natural limitation and futility of State meddling in economic affairs:
The ACA is an excellent case in point. Barack Obama and his allies saw a problem: some people can’t afford or qualify for medical insurance. But instead of investigating how market forces might currently be thwarted from addressing this problem, they used government (the blunt weapon of aggressive force) to decree that insurance companies — which are already largely creatures of the state — must accept all applicants regardless of their health (guaranteed issue) and must charge the unhealthy the same price as they charge the healthy (community rating); that is, premiums may not reflect actual risk, converting insurance into a covert transfer program.
What’s also overlooked is that before passage of the ACA, we had no free market in insurance or medical care. Both industries had long been cartelized in the states through licensing and other regulatory barriers to free competition. When people say that the medical market failed, they really should say that a government-business partnership failed. In light of that failure, it makes no sense to expand the partnership further under the central authority of the federal government, as the ACA does. Single-payer would compound the error.Can Treaties Be Used As a Workaround to State Authority? Thumbs DOWN!
George Will's latest column (HT Don Boudreaux of Cafe Hayek) reflects on Carol Bond, an immigrant whom decided to take revenge on a former best friend whom became pregnant with Bond's husband's child. The pregnant women's thumb was burned by contact with a surface Bond treated with a toxic chemical; the injury was not serious (treated by running water over it), but federal prosecutors went after Bond in violation of a 1993 chemical weapons treaty. Bond's argument is that the case is one involving state police power under the Tenth Amendment and the federal government is unconstitutionally using treaties to co-opt traditional state responsibilities. Will and I agree. What's to stop the Congress to define away state authority through politically convenient treaties?
Facebook Corner
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| Via LFC |
Sowell was a theoretical Marxist in his 20's, evolved to a laissez faire perspective when working as a government intern in 1960, he discovered the negative employment effect of minimum wage policy on Puerto Rican workers. Ad hominem attacks on Dr. Sowell are reprehensible. It takes courage and integrity to overcome what one was taught.
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| Via LFC |
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| Via LFC |
Political Cartoon
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| Courtesy of Henry Payne and Townhall |
Gilbert O' Sullivan, "Alone Again Naturally"
