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.”
That's a good point.
You have a choice as far as OASDI and MEDI in that you can opt out by not working. If you've been making millions over the years, you've also likely hit the ceiling and no longer have to pay in. This capitation is different. You are being taxed simply for existing. It will be thrown out by the Supremes, along with the other "entrenchment" scams they wrote into the bill.
The entire problem in a nutshell.
And I "assume" the government is illegitimate and plan to act accordingly.
If I wrote was I’m thinking right now the Secret Service would be outside my home in force inside of an hour.
So what, they don't even require you be here lawfully.
Actually they can, and have. This came about under FDR, when the Supreme Court ruled that a farmer could not grow wheat for his own use.
You can't make this stuff up.
Unfortunately you won't have those same loose interpretations to use.
No, they can’t. I refuse to buy it. So sue me.
IMHO we are a debauched people unworthy of self government. As Ben Franklin predicted, so corrupted as to “need a despotic government, being incapable of any other.”
As for evidence of our depravity we elected a Marxist Muslim to lead a Marxist dominated Congress overseen by a court teetering between the values of Folsom Street San Francisco and FDR.
I hope I am wrong, but in the big picture I doubt that a resounding conservative victory next year will have much affect on our long slide into tyranny.
Unfortunately they have many Kevorkians available to provide that free medical care, and us old people cost too much money.
They can take our lives but they can’t take our FREEDOM!
Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God!
Which is absurd. Come on. How can you even say that? Golly, I don't to work? I wish someone had told me. Silly me, working for money to pay bills, buy food, clothing. What was I thinking?
You are being taxed simply for existing.
Work is a necessity of life--of existence. Do we not assert the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? I love my job. I wouldn't quit if you paid me. As far as I am concerned, the taxes I pay for SS and Medicare--I'm self employed so I pay the whole thing myself--are no different.
Sure, I see your point that forcing everyone to buy insurance hits more people than just people working and earning. But it makes no difference to me, because I do work, and I assert that I have a natural right to provide for myself.
This stuff might get tossed, and that'd be fine by me. But I shudder to think what tortured logic they'll have to come up with to nullify this while keeping social security and medicare intact.
Don’t do it! Step away from the keyboard. When’s the vote? Tomorrow. It’s going to be an ugly day on Free Republic. It’s not over yet, but it’s going to be an ugly day all the same.
They're not going to use a clause to force you, Jim. They're going to use a gun.
L
Wishing you and your family...Merry christmas and a Happy New Year.
Dan White may have taken out some of the wrong people! I guess he didn’t eat quite enough twinkies afterall!!!
They need, for the sake of America, to be forcefully removed!
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