The Broccoli Menace

While I’m waiting for my other piece on yesterday’s argument, since it’s relevant again I thought I’d dip into my nostalgia file and link to my piece about why the slippery slope arguments against the ACA are really dumb. Namely, 1)there’s a lot of traction on that slope, and 2)in any case the fact that the government could do a dumb thing with a given power isn’t actually an argument that the power is unconstitutional because it applies to every valid power.

By the way, it seems odd that a required purchase of broccoli is the most frightening reductio ad absurdum they can come up with for the ad hoc arguments against a policy nobody but the most radical libertarians thought was unconstitutional four years ago. I think the anti-New Dealers are ignoring Belle Waring’s dictum that wishes are totally free. If you’re going to come up with a SCARY exercise of government power that has no chance of ever happening, can’t you do better than the forced purchase of a reasonably tasty, very nutritious food? How about, “the government might force you to buy every movie Tom Shadyac and Michael Bay have ever directed in every available format and check to make sure that you watch them!” Or “the government could force you to buy a an expensive annotated edition of the Complete Works of Jonah Goldberg and make you read it!” Hell, I’d start to wonder if maybe getting rid of the Articles of Confederation was a mistake myself…