Posted on 01/20/2011 8:40:36 AM PST by Libloather
Rep. John Lewis Says Declaration's ‘Pursuit of Happiness’ Language and 14th Amendment Authorize Congress to Force People to Buy Health Insurance
By Nicholas Ballasy
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
(CNSNews.com) -Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) said on Tuesday that the government should require individuals to buy health insurance and cited the Preamble to the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence’s “pursuit of happiness” language and the 14th Amendment as the sources of Congress’ authority to enact such a mandate.
“I think people should be required to get health insurance. We require people to get insurance for their automobile state by state but the federal government has an obligation to encourage by law, moral persuasion, to get people to get health insurance,” Lewis told CNSNews.com on Tuesday after a House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee hearing in opposition to Republican efforts to repeal the health-care law enacted last year.
One of the primary complaints Republicans have had about the health-care law is that it forces individuals to buy health insurance, which entails a power that many Republicans argue the Constitution does not give to Congress. Currently, 27 states are suing the federal government, arguing that the health-care law is in fact unconstitutional.
CNSNews.com also asked Lewis what part of the Constitution gives Congress the authority to require individuals to buy health insurance.
“Well, when you start off with the Preamble of the Constitution, you talk about the pursuit of happiness," said Lewis. "You go to the 14th Amendment--it’s equal protection under the law and we have not repealed the 14th Amendment. People have a right to have health care. It’s not a privilege but a right."
The Preamble of the Constitution states, “We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
The Declaration of Independence says, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
The 14th amendment of the U.S. Constitution states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
Lewis also predicted that the Supreme Court will ultimately decide that the individual mandate in the health care law in constitutional.
“I think when it gets to the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court will rule that it is legal and constitutional,” he said.
Civility.
John Lewis is an idiot.
And a racist!
Lewis is like many leftists who doesn’t realize that law does not “encourage,” it “FORCES.”
For morons who hate the Constitution they certainly like to quote it recently!!!!
That's a state requirement and not a federal requirement you moron! And states do not require people to purchase an automobile.
There are other parts of the Declaration of Independence that apply to our current situation.
Then, using this Libtards same logic, we should also be FORCED to by cars by Goverment Motors as well.
It’s the PURSUIT of happiness. Happiness is NOT guaranteed!
Leftist scum like Lewis don’t want American’s to “pursue happiness”. They want Americans to be dragged kicking and screaming into a socialist utopia. The USSR, China, Cambodia, North Korea, etc., are all excellent examples of the type of eternal “happiness” that results from the imposition of this type of thinking.
Forcing me to pay for it interferes with my pursuit of happiness.
However there is a solution. If it makes people happy to pay more taxes to pay for it, let them give more to government if they wish. They’ll be happy and I’ll be happy.
My right to pursuit of happiness does not give you the right to violate it by forcing me to buy something I don't want to buy.
People have a right to have health care. It’s not a privilege but a right."
Health care is not a natural right like liberty, life, property, and pursuit of happiness. Libtards can't seem to understand the difference between pursuing happiness on one's own and forcing others to provide it for them
Exactly! Happiness is different for everyone. Why not let the individual decide what it is that makes him happy and allow them the opportunities to do as much or as little to get them there. It is beyond me how this simple concept eludes them.
John Lewis is simply a facist. He cares not a whit for individual liberty or for the Constitution.
John Lewis is yet another reason why we should have picked our own cotton.
It takes a special kind of stupid to be unable to understand both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, doesn’t it? I wonder what minimum IQ is required to understand both documents? Maybe 80 or so?
So I guess they are stating that the healthcare bill doen not apply to illegals when it comes to healthacre?
Some states you can have a car without auto insurance: New Hampshire, its not compulsory.
But everybody has a body, and the federal govt should not be in the biz of making insurance on that body compulsory.
And preambles are just that: setting the stage for what follows. NOT some doorway to expand and stretch to suit statist needs. Preamble: “the introductory part of a statute, deed, or the like, stating the reasons and intent of what follows. “
Rep. John Lewis. He sure be thinkin his people be real happy, if de other people be buyin de health insurance fo his people.
You know what I be talkin about?
I’m speechles. Wow!
The inmates truly are running the asylum.
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