Competition is bad, monopolies are good, sayeth the Senator

That's the mindset of some of our beneficient overlords here in Minnesota, where control over every aspect of one's life is of paramount importance to our dear legislators.

Here's today's example:

State Senator Linda Berglin, DFL, a career politician who has been in the Legislature for so long that she still smells of patchouli oil and incense and wears Nehru jackets, has successfully lobbied for and put into place a law that forbids a company from building a cancer center in the city of Woodbury, which would compete with a hospital that's already there. Putting aside for one moment the preposterous idea that an overreaching Legislature is telling a private business that it can't do business where it wants to, wrap your heads around this nugget of info, gentle readers:

There is no cancer center currently, nor are their imminent plans for one, at the hospital in Woodbury.

"The new center could have competed for patients with nearby Woodwinds Hospital, which currently lacks the service for cancer patients but might add it in the future."

That's right. Comrade Berglin has used the overwhelming force of government to prevent a cancer center from being built to compete with one that doesn't exist, but might, maybe, one day, hopefully, we wish, be built. Screw you, Woodbury lymphoma patients. Go somewhere else until we deign to allow Woodwinds to have its own, competition-free center.

Even members of her own party have reservations about this kind of scheme:

"Rep. Tom Huntley, DFL-Duluth, said Monday he questioned the wisdom of the moratorium, saying it stifles innovation. He said he would like to see evidence that shows exactly what impact the development of radiation therapy facilities has on overall health care costs.
As for an exception to the moratorium for Monticello, Huntley said: "It's even worse to say that one group can put them up, and another group can't."

You've got that right, Mr. Huntley.

Healthy competition, which spurs innovation, lowers prices, and prompts excellent customer service, is apparently anathema to the old warhorses in the Capitol. One wonders what industry they'll spread their enlightenment to next.