Health Care and the Constitution

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In his recent Christian Science Monitor editorial, Anthony Gregory asks the essential question – the one that politicians in D.C. almost never bring up – Is it Constitutional for Obama force you to buy health insurance?

Anthony’s short answer is spot on – “Nothing in the Constitution allows the individual mandate he proposes.”  Here’s a little more:

The Constitution created a federal government limited to its enumerated powers. Everything Congress is allowed to do is spelled out in Article I. The 10th Amendment makes it explicit: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

Read the rest here – it’s well-worth your time.

Michael Boldin [send him email] is the founder of the Tenth Amendment Center. He was raised in Milwaukee, WI, and currently resides in Los Angeles, CA. Follow him on twitter - @michaelboldin, on LinkedIn, and on Facebook.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009 at 9:16 am. It is filed under Constitution, Health Care and tagged with , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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Gina Love
Gina Love

The center leaves out the most obvious misrepresentation – that Congress’ power to regulate interstate commerce is not the same as Congress’ running and owning any aspect of interstate commerce. There is a vast difference between regulating healthcare insurance and providing healthcare insurance.

Michael Boldin
Michael Boldin

That's an excellent point, Gina! For example, the founders make quite clear that a power to regulate commerce would not include a power to take over a giant field like manufacturing or agriculture....