Ted Cruz and the 'Broken Window' Theory of ObamaCare

When I was marveling at the spectacle of Barack Obama killing six million insurance policies, then celebrating the "achievement" of selling those people more expensive coverage at gunpoint, I compared it to Obama running a tire shop with a line of tire-puncturing spikes deployed on the road outside. "Wow, shame about how your wheels just blew off! Lucky for you we sell tires here! You'd best buy a set, before the cop up the road arrests you for driving on four flats!"

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) made the same point with a reference to the classic "Broken Windows" fallacy outlined by Bastiat:

He doesn't explicitly mention Bastiat in his infographic, but I suspect Cruz chose his words carefully when he named it "The Broken Window Theory of ObamaCare." In the original parable, Bastiat writes of a shopkeeper whose window gets broken by vandals. Someone tries to cheer up the shopkeeper by touting all the economic activity that will now ensue - a new window must be made and installed, the glazier will buy many things from other businesses along the way... why, the whole village will be so much richer because of the economic activity inspired by that broken window! Those vandals were actually delivering economic "stimulus" with their stones! The road to prosperity is littered with the glass of broken windows!

This kind of idiocy is actually the dominant economic theory of the modern Left; they think Bastiat was writing an instruction manual, not warning about an economic fallacy. There's nothing to "celebrate" about the April Fool's Day ObamaCare milestone - it's horrifying, for exactly the reason Cruz puts forth in his infographic. A government program that spends hundreds of billions of dollars taking away free choice from millions of people, then herds them into Big Government programs...

I respectfully disagree ‘doc. He is no buffoon. While the not paying attention American sheeple sleep are misdirected/fooled/lied to by the Main Stream Media the TOTUS muslim marxist is competently fulfilling the agenda of systematically and incrementally TRYING to destroy America that was set fort for him by his globalist PTB masters long ago. So far he is performing to/for them close to perfection. He is not stupid or dumb or a clown or any of those other like terms thrown at him. He knows exactly what he is doing. The gutless surrender monkeys claim ‘all is lost’, ‘America is gone’ etc. etc. etc. and on and on but is not lost or gone. It will take work to ‘right the ship’ but it WILL be done and those throw up their hands cowards can just stay the hell out of the way or where they are at.

Many, many moons ago, I went with a friend of mine to pick up a couple of bushels of crabs, a few pounds of shrimp and a dozen or so filets at a seafood shack for a neighborhood gathering. The carry-out was nestled in amongst old run-down houses in a rough side of town. Tough place but incredible food at awesome prices. We had to park my pal’s old Dodge Dart on the street a couple of blocks away. We picked up everything and walked back to the car. When we returned to the car, we got in and he turned the key.... nothing.

I got out and popped the hood. The battery was gone! My buddy was crushed. He had just bought a new one a month earlier. Alot of cash for a 19 year old working part-time and trying to keep a hand-me-down wreck on the road. So, we started walking back to the crab shack to use the phone to call some buddies when we passed an old black man sitting on his porch in a rocking chair. I acknowledged him with a wave and a “Hey!” as we walked by. He called out and asked if there was a problem.

I told him that somebody apparently stole the battery right out of our car.

He shook his head and rolled his eyes in mock disgust. And then he piped up, “Hey, I have some old batteries in my garage, I’ll sell you one! Ten dollars!”

We decided to check out the offer and he led us back to his garage. Sure enough, among the 10 or 12 older batteries laying in the corner, was my buddy’s 4 week old Die-Hard. We looked at each other and were going to say something to the old guy but a couple of big, ugly goons walked up and stood behind the old guy with their arms crossed firmly.

Digging in our pockets, my buddy pulled out a ten and said, “Okay, I’ll take THAT one, there. The clean one.”

The old man looked up and said, “Naw, that one’ll cost fifteen!”

I smiled and pulled a five out of my pocket and picked up the battery. The goons stepped aside with a smile. It took all of 30 seconds to hook that sucker up and get the hell out of there.

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