Trying a populist tack, Obama’s new “health reform” bill centers on federal price controls to prevent “unreasonable” increases in health insurance rates.
Professor Steve Horwitz explains in this Freeman article that there are two serious problems with that. First, price controls always wreak economic havoc because government officials cannot know what the price of insurance or anything else should be. Second, this is (another) attack on the rule of law. Laws must be clear and knowable; empowering bureaucrats to decide when an increase is “unreasonable” is not consistent with the rule of law.
The year plus we’ve been living with Obama’s regime has made it clear that the president has no understanding of economic principles and will trample upon the rule of law whenever it suits him.
