2009.12.10

Why the Personal Mandate to Buy Health Insurance Is Unprecedented and Unconstitutional. (source)

James Madison said that if men were angels, no government would be necessary and if angels governed men, no limits on government would be necessary. Because neither men nor the governments they create are angelic, government and limits on government are both necessary for ordered liberty. Politics may tell us what we want to do, but the Constitution tells us what we may do and we must keep those separate. The ends do not justify the means for one simple reason - liberty. Liberty requires limits on government power, it always has and it always will.

Another excerpt: In 1994, the Congressional Budget Office said of an individual mandate to buy health insurance: A mandate requiring all individuals to purchase health insurance would be an unprecedented form of federal action. The government has never required people to buy any good or service as a condition of lawful residence in the United States. An individual mandate would have two features that, in combination, would make it unique. First, it would impose a duty on individuals as members of society. Second, it would require people to purchase a specific service that would be heavily regulated by the federal government.

And... On October 23rd, a reporter asked Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA): "Madam Speaker, where specifically does the Constitution grant Congress the authority to enact an individual health insurance mandate?" Speaker Pelosi shook her head and before moving on to another question replied: "Are you serious? Are you serious??" Pressed for a more substantive response later, PelosiÕs press spokesman admonished the reporter: "You can put this on the record. That is not a serious question. That is not a serious question."

The bottomline is this - government health care is unconsitutional. We have people in elected office that have zero respect for the constitution. These are dangerous people.