Hoyer Says Constitution’s ‘General Welfare’ Clause Empowers Congress to Order Americans to....

CNSnews ^

[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.”

[Sub-Driver]

Uh, don't think so Steny.....

[Non-Sequitur]

Well that should make for an interesting Supreme Court decision somewhere down the road.

[April Lexington]

I wonder if we can rely on the General Welfare clause to justify storming the Capitol building...

[MileHi]

Bite me, Steny!

[Reddy]

“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.

[marstegreg]

How about “ensure the blessings or our LIBERTY to ourselves and our posterity”?

[GeronL]

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?

[cvq3842]

Hoyer is an idiot.

[thecabal]

Funny you mentioned that, I was thinking something very similar...

[mnehring]

He really needs to read Federalist 41.

[beethovenfan]

“Liberty” and “freedom” are not in the Democrats’ vocabulary.

[GeronL]

I hope we aren’t going to depend on SCOTUS.

I am sure SoSo will fall in line with her masters.

[maine yankee]

At the 9/12 march on the capital last month, one of the more popular signs read;

.....WE CAME UN-ARMED; this time

[Adder]

Tell it to the judge[s].

What an insufferable ass....

[gunnyg]

some of us would lean toward the enemies foreign and domestic “clause!”

[tsmith130]

Hoyer is an idiot.

He's in good company.

[avacado]

"Hoyer Says Constitution’s ‘General Welfare’ Clause Empowers Congress to Order Americans to Buy Health Insurance"

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.

[Perdogg]

Supreme Court has already ruled that the preamble to the Constitution doesn’t mandate any services.

[wmposh]

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.

[marstegreg]

Not “Ensure”...My memory is poor...I meant “secure”...Sorry