BURN: Michael Kinsley--Atlantic Scale Buffoon

Michael Kinsley wrote a little TEA Party hit-piece for The Atlantic.  In it, he proves himself a buffoon on an oceanic scale.

Take as a for-instance this passage:

“I like what they’re saying. It’s common sense,” a random man-in-the-crowd told a Los Angeles Times reporter at a big Tea Party rally. Then he added, “They’ve got to focus on issues like keeping jobs here and lowering the cost of prescription drugs.” These, of course, are projects that can be conducted only by Big Government. If the Tea Party Patriots ever developed a coherent platform or agenda, they would lose half their supporters.

 Really, Michael???  ONLY by BIG GOVERNMENT...???  This is so fatuous that I really thought Michael was kidding when I read it.  "Nobody is THAT stupid", I said to myself.  But Michael insisted he was.  He apparently believes that markets play no role in job creation and retention.  He also explicitly tells us that markets play no role in pricing drugs, and bringing those prices lower via competition.

But TEA Party people support markets, and we feel there is ample empirical evidence showing that markets will "keep jobs here" when they should be kept here, and ship them wherever when that would be most beneficial to everyone concerned...even including a person who temporarily looses a job.

We also understand that wonderful new drugs are not developed by BIG GOVERNMENT.  Rather the opposite, actually; BIG GOVERNMENT keeps wonderful drugs off the market, from the people who need and want them.  Lowering the cost of prescription drugs seems like a great success story for the competitive market.  How much lower can you get than $4.00 to $10.00 for a month's supply?  Sure, not all drugs can be had that cheaply; some are still very expensive...or FREE in many cases.

The TEA Partiers are not homogeneous, but we do have a thing or two in common.  We think people should be free to the maximum extent possible.  Free to deal with each other, to innovate, employ who they will, to purchase what they will, etc.  It isn't just good economics; it is morally right.

I'd stack up the evidence for the market being THE ONLY way to achieve Kinsley's goals against any evidence he can show that BIG GOVERNMENT has done either successfully...especially ECONOMICALLY.  Any day, Michael.