Not a Slippery Slope

In Sunday's New York Times, Richard Thaler argued that the conservative argument against the individual mandate is nothing more than a slippery slope arguments.  Since slippery slope arguments are fallacious so is the conservative argument against the individual mandate.

However, the argument against the mandate is not quite a slippery slope.  A slippery slope argument states that if we do X, then we'll do Y, then Z, then eventually we'll do something crazy, but if we don't do X then that series of events won't happen.  The argument against the individual mandate isn't saying that if we allow this power to Congress, then Congress will eventually force us all to eat broccoli. 

Instead it's an argument that if Congress has the power to mandate insurance, then Congress has the power to mandate anything, even broccoli.  Conservatives argue that permitting the mandate means Congress has the power to mandate anything they want, not that they necessarily will do so.