Senator Blanche Lincoln Says That Constitution Permits Congress To Force Individuals To Buy Health Insurance

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Firstly, the Constitution never gives the federal government the power to force individuals to buy something regardless of whether they want to based on the "health and well being" of the people in the country. A person who knew just a little about the Constitution would never have given such a vague and ridiculous answer. A person with some knowledge of our Constitution would have pointed to a provision of the Constitution that grants certain powers to the federal government, or at least cited a Supreme Court precedent that is somewhat analogous to the issue at hand.

Perhaps this Senator, whose words clearly show her to be an ignoramus when it comes to the Constitutional, was referring to the "general welfare" clause. However, to force an individual to buy a particular form of insurance is not "general" at all, and if the person is young and healthy it may not even be in the welfare of the person to do so either. A simple reading of the Constitution does not imply that the federal government has the right to mandate purchasing a product. It certainly falls nowhere within the Enumerated Powers.

The sad truth, however, is that the beginning of the end for the Constitutional structure of our government was 1937 when FDR threatened the Supreme Court "packing." He threatened to "pack the Court" with "his" Justices if they didn't rubber stamp New Deal legislation. Since then, almost every federal power-grabbing piece of legislation has been rubber stamped by the Court via Article I's Necessary and Proper Clause or the Commerce Clause.

But this Senator clearly knows nothing of of the Constitution anyway, and it is a shame that those who know and care little about the Constitution actually serve in our Senate. Tweet