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| White House Says No 'Veracity' to Argument That Forcing Individuals to Buy Health Insurance Is Unconstitutional | |
| 2009-10-30 | |
I think that means there's no controlling legal authority. I'd have to ask al-Gore to make sure, though... The Congressional Budget Office has said that the federal government has never before in American history forced Americans to purchase any good or service. When the health-care bill was being debated in the Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), the former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, raised questions about the constitutionality of forcing Americans to buy health insurance, which all congressional versions of the health care bill would do. Hatch rejected the notion that the Commerce Clause--which empowers Congress to regulate commerce "among the several states"--justifies forcing Americans to purchase a product they do not want to buy. If Congress can make people buy health insurance, Hatch argued, they can force Americans to buy refrigerators or new cars. But Gibbs said those who make this kind of argument have no federal court cases to back them up. "I won't be confused as a constitutional scholar, but I don't believe there's a lot of--I don't believe there's a lot of case law that would demonstrate the veracity of what they're commentating on," said Gibbs. Asked by CNSNews.com last week where specifically the Constitution authorizes Congress to mandate that individuals buy health insurance, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said, "Are you serious? Are you serious?" A Congressional Research Service report concluded that requiring individuals to purchase or have health insurance could be challenged. "Whether such a requirement would be constitutional under the Commerce Clause is perhaps the most challenging question posed by such a proposal, as it is a novel issue whether Congress may use this clause to require an individual to purchase a good or service," the CRS reportedly says. 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." | |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #11 Or maybe Norman Bates. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2009-10-30 13:18 |
| #10 Sounds like Gibbs is channeling that Damon Wayans character, Oswald Bates. |
| Posted by: Mitch H. 2009-10-30 13:16 |
| #9 Who actually uses a word like veracity in conversation, when truth will do? Lawyers and pretentious academics. |
| Posted by: Glavins Gonque7951 2009-10-30 11:35 |
| #8 So Baghdad Bob Gibbs is now a Constitutional law expert? Can the govmint force you to buy condoms or an abortion or a refrigerator or a hair transplant or boob job. I don't think so. If they try to push this I see trouble on the horizon. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2009-10-30 10:52 |
| #7 Let them pass it in a hurry then before Barry has a chance to pack the Supreme Court. |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2009-10-30 10:51 |
| #6 One man's veracity is another man's truth. |
| Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 2009-10-30 10:28 |
| #5 Importantly, there is no constitutional clause forbidding a tax of first born sons, that will be thrown into cauldrons of boiling tar to honor Cthulhu, so that he will turn the oceans to blood, so clearly if congress cannot create that law in conference committee, then Obama can do so by Executive Order, or at least in a Presidential Signing Statement attached to a Health and Human Services appropriations bill. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2009-10-30 08:52 |
| #4 Amendment XIII Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. We don't need no stinking Constitution. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2009-10-30 08:15 |
| #3 The Constitution does not tell the government what it can do, it tells it what it cannot. THIS, it cannot. |
| Posted by: newc 2009-10-30 02:59 |
| #2 I guess the 9th and 10th amendments mean nothing. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2009-10-30 01:54 |
| #1 The Congressional Budget Office has said that the federal government has never before in American history forced Americans to purchase any good or service. To my untutored mind, forced contributions to Social Security and Medicare by payroll deduction amount to the same thing. |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2009-10-30 00:20 |