Ask a liberal: If the government can force you to buy health insurance, can the government force you to buy a firearm?
So let's say the SC rules this law Constitutional....Once conservatives get all three branches of government, WHAT CAN WE FORCE DOWN THE THROATS OF LIBERALS? Buy a Gun...mandate contributions to the church of your choice (for the spiritual "health of the nation")...
Insert your own ideas, what's good for the goose is good for the gander
if this is upheld, GOP needs to be ready to go the next day with a bill requiring every American to buy a firearm and a subscription to Rush 24/7.
And if the lib argues "That's ridiculous!", tell him about Kennesaw, Georgia, where they did indeed mandate firearms ownership.
Ask a liberal: If the government can force you to buy health insurance, can the government force you to buy a firearm?
And he'll reply, "No, of course not, that would be silly and unproductive -- like you, because you're right-wing scum, whereas I am an enlightened and bien-pensant human being."
But your point is well-taken, that the mandate is a reinvention of the French Grand Gabelle, the Salt Tax, the most hated tax in human history excepting perhaps the Turkish "Toll of Boys" (their levy of Christian children for service as janissaries, and for constant pressure to convert to Islam).
French taxpayers were forced to buy salt from the King at various onerous rates around the country, under a royal monopoly. Exact same idea as Obamacare.
“Ask a liberal: If the government can force you to buy health insurance, can the government force you to buy a firearm?”
Oddly enough, liberals have brought this up as a justification for the ObamaCare mandate. President George Washington signed the Militia Act of 1792, which required able-bodied male citizens to buy a musket or firelock, etc.
http://www.salon.com/2010/03/25/militia/
http://www2.law.ucla.edu/volokh/2amteach/SOURCES.HTM#TOC33
The problem with this argument (for them) is that Article 1 Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution says that Congress shall have the power to:
“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;”
So this is an express power given to Congress that does not rely on stretching out the interstate commerce clause to infinity.
You touch on an interesting point, one I hope the Justices consider. The Democrats should have foreseen this before enacting ObamaCare.
It gives unlimited power to the Executive and the legislative branches, both in Democrat hands at the time. That will not always be the case, and when the Rights takes power, they can enact anything into ObamaCare, like eliminating abortion.
This is a lose-lose for Obama and the Dems no matter which way SCOTUS decides.
“Ask a liberal: If the government can force you to buy health insurance, can the government force you to buy a firearm?”
I’m afraid that is not the question to ask a liberal, as firearms would be found under the militia clause, specifically the part where man of military age is regarded as part of the militia.
The question is whether or not the governmental can force you to buy into a contract agreeing to be institutionalized if you happen to hold believes your “desinated party” finds insane. That is all part of forcing you into a government approved contract.
Ask a Liberal if they feel comfortable with the idea of Republicans taking the presidency then using their new founded power over health insurance to prohibit contraception, abortions, and various other “services” used primarily by leftist?
I think Obama may not want to win this, because if they do their dead.