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.”
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. I guess I'll stop paying those taxes then!
“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.”
So they’re idea is to tax people who do nothing, huh?
How about taxing those who don’t go out and get a job??
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find only things evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelogus
I ‘assume’ Feinstein is a parasite.
If this be treason make the most of it!
I believe in taking decent care of the poor and weak- but these people are Communists in “liberal” clothing. imho
I am a private citizen. They cannot use the interstate commerce clause to force me to purchase an insurance policy against my will.
I’ll see them in court or in hell. I refuse to give up my Liberty to usurpers!
You know what, Di-Fi, when you make an assumption, you make an a$$ out of you and Umption...now why you takling like that about Umption?
So, the libs change it to be a tax on individuals instead.
I would call this plausible deniability, except it’s so implausible on it’s face that it’s more like cognitive dissonance than anything else. If Feinstein dripped with any more contemptuous arrogance, the acid would eat the floor out from underneath her and she’d fall through the hole.
The commerce clause has been perverted to pass a lot of BAD legislation, overlooking the rest of the Constitution.
The elephant in the room is social security and medicare. Isn't that a "public option" retirement plan we are forced to buy? How about Medicare? Isn't that a "public option" health plan for seniors we are forced to buy? However they justified those (commerce clause?) will be how they justify this.
Let’s just hope the jack booted dems don’t buy off, extort or threaten said judges. We are fast evolving into a 3rd world dictatorship.
Good idea. You should stop paying.
How ‘bout us FReepers filing a class action lawsuit?
Yep, and if you ask a judge what an "individual" is, he'll hit you with a contempt citation for frivolity as his answer.
Exactly, we lost this fight somewhere around 1934.
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.
Have you ever been forced by government fiat to buy a product from a private business?
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