Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.
Posted on 12/23/2009 1:36:25 PM PST by IbJensen
(CNSNews.com) – Senator Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) said that Congress has the authority to mandate that people buy health insurance and that there is no constitutional limit on Congress’ power to enact such mandates, adding that this unlimited authority stemmed from the Commerce clause of the Constitution.
The health care bills in both the House and Senate require that every American purchase a health insurance policy. At the Capitol on Tuesday, CNSNews.com asked Sen. Feinstein: “Where in the Constitution does Congress get the authority for an individual health insurance mandate?”
Feinstein said: “Well, I would assume it would be in the Commerce clause of the Constitution. That’s how Congress legislates all kinds of various programs.”
CNSNews.com followed up by asking Sen. Feinstein whether this broad power had any limits: “If there’s a health insurance mandate, is there a limit to that authority? Is there something that can’t be mandated?”
Feinstein responded: “My own view is that there is not, within health insurance.”
The Commerce clause is found in Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution. It states the numerous powers authorized to Congress, including the power “To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among several States, and with the Indian tribes.”
The Senate version of health reform imposes an historic mandate on all Americans, requiring them to have government-approved health insurance, either through an employer or individually. The mandate also can penalize people with a surtax ranging from $500 to nearly $1,500 per year if they do not have a health insurance policy.
The bill, which looks certain to pass the Senate sometime on Christmas Eve, is unpopular with the public, garnering the support of barely 40 percent of Americans, according to recent national polls. Those numbers led Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele to accuse Congress of “flipping the bird” to the American people.
“This is a bad bill, it is bad, certainly for individuals and enough is enough,” Steele said in a conference call on Monday. “I am tired of Congress thumbing its nose and flipping a bird to the American people. I’m tired of this Congress thinking it knows better than me and my family how to provide for our health care now and in the future. I’m tired of this Congress not listening to me and to the American people – to all of us.”
In 1994, when the Clinton administration attempted to push a health care reform plan through a Democratic Congress that also mandated every American buy health insurance, the Congressional Budget Office determined that the government had never ordered Americans to buy anything.
“The government has never required people to buy any good or service as a condition of lawful residence in the United States,” the CBO analysis said. “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.”
Interstate Commerce in Healthcare is currently specifically prohibited by States, in contravention of the Constitution.
If Congress wanted to do something helpful and within their enumerated powers, they would require that states accept health care offers across state lines.
That would decrease costs, increase quality, increase availability, and cost the taxpayer nothing, through competition.
But being POWER-GRABBING SOCIALIST A-HOLES, the Democrats couldn’t possibly do something so simple, constitutional and effective.
The commerce and general welfare clauses have been hijacked by liberals to mean anything they want it to mean
Same thing with this “right to privacy” to justify abortion
Yeah, I could always move to Lancaster PA and be Amish. What nonsense. A car is an essential item. I need it to work.
A couple of things:
1. I do believe the SCOTUS has ruled state lines are pretty much a moot point concerning the Commerce Clause. I'm trying to find the ruling on it where it was gutted
2. "Allowing" and "regulating" within the rules are no longer applicable to this Congress and administration.
They are power mad and have the votes and political power to pretty much do as the please.
Turbo Tax.
You CHOOSE to seek medical care when you get sick. No one forces you to go to the hospital.
If the federal government can mandate that you purchase private health insurance, why can't the mandate:
The brand of vehicle you must purchase, or;
Where you can buy your food, or;
Where you are permitted to live, or;
How many children you are permitted to have.
If this is upheld, the government can literally run your daily life.
Does this sound like any of the twentieth century regimes we know all too much about?
and being force to make monthly contributions for abortions should make everyone mad.
Only if we let them take our freedom. Had to put a stop to that crap once before, back in the late 17 hundreds....
‘How can that be considered a penalty if I am not a free man on the outside?’
Now this is the kind of thinking we need. When all the world is a prison, then you are at least as free within the prison as you are outside. “Freedom” or “captivity” exist first in the mind, and one or the other engages your soul. In your head, you may always be free, if you so choose.
The truly free man cannot be punished. Not by fines, not by prison, not even by death. Just keep your eye on the prize.
RE: “Fine.
They made their laws, now let them enforce them.
Refuse to pay the fines, if any are assessed. Go to jail. Then appeal the sentence based on the Constitutionality of the law which you consider to be unjust.
Murderers have been turned loose on flimsier interpretations of the law and Constitution.
If ten thousand, nay, ten times ten thousand made such an appeal to the law, could they be long ignored?
And that is what we want, to force the supposed elected officials to STOP IGNORING US.
They are supposed to represent US, not George Soros International, or the Wahhabist Islamic jihadists, or the Peoples’ Republic of China.”
********************
With all the shenanigans going on in DC now, I would bet anything that tens of thousands of taxpayers will soon say, OK, you’re going to cut backroom, midnight deals with various states and such in order to get this nightmare passed, then we feel just fine about, say, cheating on income tax, taking more than our share of unemployment, welfare — you name it.
How will this govt. force millions to actually buy into this scheme, even with threats of fines or jail time? For most of us, the fines would be bargains!
I see a massive shut-down coming — seriously! It’ll be a free-for-all!
The joke here is that the “mandate” only applies in practice to responsible citizens. So you pick up a few middle class 25 year olds who would have otherwise self-insured. But the large classes that are uninsured today, homeless, welfare class, illegal immigrants are all protected classes and will remain uninsured with no effective sanction (unless thee and me pay for their premiums).
I guarantee you Juanita and her kids aren’t going to jail—they’re going to the emergency room the same as today and they will continue to burden the system exactly as they do today.
The biggest hardship here will be unemployed young people forced to subsidize Juanita. Or more accurately, on the parents of unemployed young people.
RE: “But only if you own or drive a car. Same with Social Security or Medicare, only if you work. What makes ObamaCare different is that you are being forced to buy health insurance just because you happen to be born a citizen of the United States.”
***************
Precisely! 100% correct! Every single person from birth to death is being forced by this government to be covered by this nightmare, which in fact is nothing more than a power/control grab, certainly not something resembling good health ‘care.’
This is nowhere near similar to having to purchase auto insurance in order to legally drive, or pay income tax on earnings, or contribute to social security based on earnings. None of the foregoing in this paragraph includes EVERY SINGLE PERSON in this 300+ million country.
This fiasco will not stand — they can have all the votes they want but it will NOT stand.
RE: “Just make it 500 to 1500 a day. Screw it. I ain’t payin that one neither.”
**************
Me either — see you in prison. Hey, Gitmo may be available when they (eventually) move those prisoners from that state of the art facility to northern Illinois.
Hey, I love the tropics — works for me.
“Have you ever been forced by government fiat to buy a product from a private business?”
No. That’s why they will make certain that insurance will no longer be a private business.
Gee, I wonder how Sotomayor will rule.
I’m sure we can depend on the wise Latina to do the right thing when the chips are down.
RE: “Really? So I don’t have to pay Social Security taxes? I don’t have to pay medicare taxes? All this time I thought I was being forced to buy gubmint run retirement insurance and gubmint run health insurance.”
...and...
“You only have to do that if you are dumb enough to work to support yourself and your family /s”
**************
Your response may be sarcastic but it’s true that not everyone earns enough, sometimes ever, to pay much, if anything in income taxes. And if they don’t work, for whatever reason, they don’t pay social security taxes either. I know some adults who have gamed the system so well over time that they’ve lived well enough for decades without spending one dime. Of course these are people who feel entitled to everything, but you get the idea.
I see this whole forced purchase of government ‘healthcare’ as unconstitutional and Feinstein can go pound sand.
Re: ...............”Now if the government owns the insurance company, then we have a problem”
*****************
And that, of course, is the eventual goal of these Marxists!
good point
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.