Posted on 10/21/2009 7:56:56 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
Hoyer Says Constitution’s ‘General Welfare’ Clause Empowers Congress to Order Americans to Buy Health Insurance Wednesday, October 21, 2009 By Matt Cover
(CNSNews.com) – House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said that the individual health insurance mandates included in every health reform bill, which require Americans to have insurance, were “like paying taxes.” He added that Congress has “broad authority” to force Americans to purchase other things as well, so long as it was trying to promote “the general welfare.”
The Congressional Budget Office, however, has stated in the past that a mandate forcing Americans to buy health insurance would be an “unprecedented form of federal action,” and that the “government has never required people to buy any good or service as a condition of lawful residence in the United States.”
Hoyer, speaking to reporters at his weekly press briefing on Tuesday, was asked by CNSNews.com where in the Constitution was Congress granted the power to mandate that a person must by a health insurance policy. Hoyer said that, in providing for the general welfare, Congress had “broad authority.”
(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...
Well that should make for an interesting Supreme Court decision somewhere down the road.
I wonder if we can rely on the General Welfare clause to justify storming the Capitol building...
Bite me, Steny!
“Well that should make for an interesting Supreme Court decision somewhere down the road.”
Sadly, somewhere down the road the SCOTUS will be packed with libs that believe this cr#p.
How about “ensure the blessings or our LIBERTY to ourselves and our posterity”?
I think it means we are legally able to buy a B-1 bomber and take out the Congress building, White House and all those Cabinet buildings.
Isn’t that the real meaning of the “General welfare” clause?
Hoyer is an idiot.
Funny you mentioned that, I was thinking something very similar...
He really needs to read Federalist 41.
“Liberty” and “freedom” are not in the Democrats’ vocabulary.
I hope we aren’t going to depend on SCOTUS.
I am sure SoSo will fall in line with her masters.
At the 9/12 march on the capital last month, one of the more popular signs read;
.....WE CAME UN-ARMED; this time
What an insufferable ass....
some of us would lean toward the enemies foreign and domestic “clause!”
He's in good company.
What a dumba$$! The Constution enumerates EXACTLY what is meant be "general welfare" that Congress is to provide and it does NOT include health insurance!
Article I Section 8 To borrow money on the credit of the United States; To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes; To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States; To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures; To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States; To establish Post Offices and Post Roads; To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries; To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court; To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offenses against the Law of Nations; To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water; To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years; To provide and maintain a Navy; To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces; To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions; To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress; To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings; And To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.
Supreme Court has already ruled that the preamble to the Constitution doesn’t mandate any services.
What if the cost is beyond a person’s means? Would a person be forced to choose between buying staples such as food or paying utility bills in order to make this demand? Is that the role of government? I could see homelessness increasing.
Not “Ensure”...My memory is poor...I meant “secure”...Sorry
Bill of Attainder - ask the Brits how it worked out for them in the mid-1770s.
This is not some abstract concept, our founders were clear that ‘promoting the general welfare’ was not a blank check of government power.
I have no doubt that Sotomayor will. But then so would have Souter. The battle needs to be fought and won before one of the more rational justices needs to be replaced. So long as Obama is replacing the Ginsburgs and the Souters and the Sevens' of the court then it liberal for liberal. If he has a chance to replace an Alito or a Scalia or a Thomas then we're sunk.
"Socialism is just the last "feel good” step on the path to Communism and its slavery." - Vladimir Lenin
“Medicine (health care control) is the keystone of the arch of socialism.” - Vladimir Lenin
I think it would promote the general welfare if he were a street cleaner rather than a legislator.
Well, I have to agree with him, they are forcing me to buy lots of ammo (at least that's what I've told my wife)
Maybe they will try to expand the court soon. You never know.
For me, “. . . the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed” makes for a better “General Welfare” imperative.
That would mean that the gu-ment is supposed to give everyone a free Glock.
Hubba Hubba!
The Supreme Court has also ruled that people can be forced to pay into Social Security. But I’m not sure that the government can force people to buy insurance from a private company. Which, I suppose, is one reason why the Democrats are so big on a public option.
The Declaration of Independence gives the people broad authority to throw off a rouge government.
Think real hard about that one Steny.
That is a crock of chit. They did not have such a thing as health care when the constitution was written.
“He added that Congress has “broad authority” to force Americans to purchase other things as well, so long as it was trying to promote “the general welfare.”
O.K. Congress KNOWS national security is an important issue. So Hoyer should support requiring American citizens to purcahse military style rifles so they can help with our national defense.
Hmmm. *leafing* No, I think that falls under "insuring domestic Tranquility."
Oh, and by the way Steny, shall we talk about the general Welfare of the unborn?
In fact I don’t think the Preamble is, any way legally binding. Its just a mission statement.
Our government is getting loonier and loonier.
Sounds like Steny needs to stop by Borders and pick up a copy of “The US Constitution for Dummies”...
“Promote” and “Enforce” means two VERY DIFFERENT THINGS!
Is it the government’s job to “Enforce” the law? or “Promote” it?
By passing laws which deny freedoms, they violate the very thing that they swore to protect.
Citizens are not obligated to obey unconstitutional law.
Citizens ARE obligated by the constitution to rise up and abolish by any means necessary any government which threatens the constitution.
This is a clear constitutional violation and usurp of unprecedented power and government control, the very thing the founding fathers wrote into the constitution to avoid!
General Welfare = Mandatory Healthcare?
Uh... No.
Thanks for playing, though.
After a long train of usurpations....
lol
I recall a study that found people who go to church, and more recently one that found people in “groups” have better health. By his logic congress could force people to go to church and ... well there is just no end to the things that promote the general welfare.
18 powers dumbass and Socialized Medicine is not one of them.
The General Welfare clause could also be used to get rid of the crooks in Washington.....like Rangle and his buddies.
The tenth Amendment seems to support the idea that the governments powers are only those that are clearly defined and all others are left to the states. It would seem to me that based on the Constitution and the 10th amendment the entitlement programs of welfare and the like should have never been taken on at the federal level. They aren’t given that power. They’ve simply assumed it on their own.
Steny needs to read the preamble of The Bill of Rights. Then again that might be hard to find. Last year I took the time to review four history books used at the local school districts in my area. Within the books they had the US Constitution but all were minus the preamble to the Bill of Rights. Which basically sates that the rights of the individuals are protected from the main body of the US Constitution.
YEP! many of those signs! torches & pitchforks & ??? next time!
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