Forcing a vote on Demcare’s constitutionality
GOP Sens. Jim DeMint and John Ensign announced this afternoon that they’ll force a vote on the constitutionality of Demcare’s individual health care mandate. (Democrat response: Constitution? Wellness prevention programs are an inalienable right!)
Here’s the press release:
Today, U.S. Senators Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina) and John Ensign (R-Nevada), raised a Constitutional Point of Order on the Senate floor against the Democrat health care takeover bill on behalf of the Steering Committee, a caucus of conservative senators. The Senate will vote tomorrow on the bill’s constitutionality.
“I am incredibly concerned that the Democrats’ proposed individual mandate provision takes away too much freedom and choice from Americans across the country,” said Senator Ensign. “As an American, I felt the obligation to stand up for the individual freedom of every citizen to make their own decision on this issue. I don’t believe Congress has the legal authority to force this mandate on its citizens.”
“Forcing every American to purchase a product is absolutely inconsistent with our Constitution and the freedoms our Founding Fathers hoped to protect,” said Senator DeMint. “This is not at all like car insurance, you can choose not to drive but Americans will have no choice whether to buy government-approved insurance. This is nothing more than a bailout and takeover of insurance companies. We’re forcing Americans to buy insurance under penalty of law and then Washington bureaucrats will then dictate what these companies can sell to Americans. This is not liberty, it is tyranny of good intentions by elites in Washington who think they can plan our lives better than we can.”
Americans who fail to buy health insurance, according to the Democrats’ bill, would be subject to financial penalties. The senators believe the bill is unconstitutional because the insurance mandate is not authorized by any of the limited enumerated powers granted to the federal government. The individual mandate also likely violates the “takings” clause of the 5th Amendment.
The Democrats’ healthcare reform bill requires Americans to buy health insurance “whether or not they ever visit a doctor, get a prescription or have an operation.” If an American chooses not to buy health insurance coverage, they will face rapidly increasing taxes that will rise to $750 or 2% of their taxable income, whichever is greater.
The Congressional Budget Office once stated “A mandate requiring all individuals to purchase health insurance would be an unprecedented form of federal action. The government has never required people to buy any good or service as a condition of lawful residence in the United States.”
A legal study by scholars at the nonpartisan Heritage Foundation concluded: “An individual mandate to enter into a contract with or buy a particular product from a private party, with tax penalties to enforce it, is unprecedented– not just in scope but in kind–and unconstitutional as a matter of first principles and under any reasonable reading of judicial precedents.”
More: Conservative leaders against the illegal individual mandate.
On a related front, Sen. DeMint has challenged the supermajority protection embedded in Reid’s package.
Thanks for fighting for us, Sen. DeMint! Fight with everything you have.
See what others have said
Note from Michelle: This section is for comments from michellemalkin.com's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that I agree with or endorse any particular comment just because I let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with my terms of use may lose his or her posting privilege.
Trackbacks
- Be John Galt
- Jeremiah Films
- The Snooper Report
- ~ Simple Health Care Test for the Average Joe: What Do You Plan To Do, When… « Quick Daily Hits — Politics and Such
- The Strident Conservative
Comments
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Categories: Health care
Doug Ross @ Journal
» Pr·i·us In·sur·rec·tion
Ed Driscoll
» The MSM: Trapped in the Overlook HotelLegal Insurrection
» My Shocking Theory On The Delaware PrimaryHot Air
» Quotes of the dayRiehl World View
» A Puzzled Patterico
It’s about time! I have been preaching this since I was 13 years old and I am now 54. I was screaming about this when I got back from The War in 2004.
Where in the “hades” has everyone been?
That is great news! Even if it fails (which it probably will with the characters we have in the Senate’s majority) it will force Dem’s to go on record on how they truly view the American people.
If I were Sen DeMint I would also add that it allows the Government to decide which insurance carriers can even sell the “approved” product which I believe could violate the commerce clause also.
To alleviate their confusion, here are enumerated powers for Congress as per Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution:
“To borrow money on the credit of the United States;
To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;
To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;
To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;
To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;
To establish Post Offices and Post Roads;
To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;
To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;
To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offenses against the Law of Nations;
To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;
To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;
To provide and maintain a Navy;
To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;
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;
To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings; And
To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.”
Amendment 10 states this:
“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.”
Funny thing. I don’t see health care or anything of the sort listed here. What took them so long to bring this up?
Go DeMint and all others! Please, please, DO whatever you can do to stop this.
L
Yeah, that will carry a lot of weight! You’ve got to be kidding me! The body that passed the friggin’ bill will now vote on whether it is Constitutional? This needs to go to SCOTUS.
Medicare and Social Security.
I’m forced to buy them, I think, if I am employed or self-employed.
Although I do hope their point of order works.
Dexter Alarius,
I wonder if the scotus would take this asap? If not, it could take years going down the court system. We all know this is not Constitutional. Well, not all, the d’s in dc think it is and they do not care.
L
Does this mean that bums are criminals because they cannot buy health insurance? I love it when lefty ideals collide like two trains in a head on.
This needs to go to SCOTUS
I don’t think so. The 10th Amendment reads clearly. We don’t need 9 unlected people in robes to read the Constitution to us.
What’s the “Constitutional Point of Order”? Under what circumstances and how often can it be used? Can the GOP raise many such objections and gum up the works with them? Seems to me that a 2000-page bill must contain loads of constitutionally dubious provisions that Senators could force individual votes on, if the rules allow for that.
Yes, Harry Reid. What gives you the right to violate my constitutional rights? Who do you think you are? If I decide to pay for health services with cash my entire life, you have no autority to mandate otherwise.
Plain.Simple.Unconstitutional. You freaking idiot.
Of course it is in the Constitution. Just look more closely at the 10th amendment:
“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, except for health-care, which is a right of all Americans, undocumented Americans, and any others that the Senate and House might think up. All Americans are required to purchase a health-care policy as directed by the Federal Government.”
See! It is right there in black and white! I was wondering how long it was going to take the government to see it.
(Ummmm, I might have made some of it up, but you just know that the Founding Fathers left it out by accident.
This will go to the SCOTUS. This just puts in on record as to who stands for what.
As anti-health care bill as I am, I hope that, if it does pass, the final nail in the Socialist coffin is in place.
If passed, the backlash will be biblical.
Oh, it will pass.
Like it was for the EPA, Dep. of Education, Agriculture, Housing and Urban Development, Health and Human Services, Energy (to a certain extent), Agriculture, Labor, not to mention Social Security, Welfare, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the Federal Reserve, the IRS…? Give it a generation and folks will think nothing of it. They’ll think, “gosh, well this is the way it’s always been.”
Finally! Intelligent and principled leaders are waking up and taking action. Hopefully this will be like Chamberlain’s “swinging gate” maneuver at Gettysburg/Little Round Top.
Fire at will and keep on firing!
Sen DeMint is the GOP Senate leader as far as I’m concerned. Bravo and kudos to the great senator from South Carolina.
Send_Me: You’ve hit the nail on the head. We can backlash as biblically as we like and it won’t mean a thing.
Ex.Act.Ly! This is why our government has been able to invade and control so much of our lives today. Look at those 35 and younger – they don’t have a clue about how we got where we are. Many think without question that liberalism is just “the way things should be.”
Of all the many dangerous, destructive provisions in the bill, this individual mandate is the one that I find most intrusive and oppressive. (I don’t have insurance and I like it that way.) This may convince some Americans that still are wavering but it won’t sway any Dem-Progressive-Socialists. They’ll just ignore the point, cover their ears and yap about health care is a right and that covering everybody is a moral imperative, even if it bankrupts us.
Our two senators from SC are like unto a compass and a weathervane. Guess which one is which?
I’ve lived a couple of years. That said, I have NEVER experienced such unrest in this great country of ours. Never!
From CNSNews.com:
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/55910
Oh, Wow. I am just so impressed! Please, these Repubs better get a big loud dog in this fight and roar like hell or we will crush them with conservative candidates in 2010/12. DeMint is acting like he’s really doing something–Repubs should have been screaming like banshees instead of trying to act all “collegiate in the chamber.” I. AM. SICK. OF. THEM. ALL.
Based on the CNS News artilce above, this makes me think that DeMint & Co. may be leading the Dems into a Crazy Horse-style trap.
ROTFLMAO. I saw Grahmnesty on Fox News this morning acting like a young girl who had spent the weekend in a motel madly falling in love and being used by with some guy who after the weekend was over had given her his phone number.
She called breathlessly thinking about their next time together and then found out the number was to a laundromat.
“Why I voted for Sotomoyer and this is the kind of bipartisanship I get in return?” Well DUH!!!!!!
Redstate. McConnell caves again. Collegiality.
We are finally learning that Liberals will ignore the rules until we compell them to follow them.
H@11 look at the immigration laws. That should tell you their mindset. If we do not like something we pretend it’s not there.
This is precisely how the Marxists exploit the enemy. They count on this happening. He who controls the mind wins the battle.
That is why public education is the thing that needs to be reformed.
Mitch McConnell = Walter Mitty
What we need is the Senatorial version of Conan the Barbarian.
Clearly a ridiculous but carefully crafted sentence. Words strung together to elicit an emotional response and most probably borne out of such urban centers as Chicago and/or Detroit.
Places where the most revered words are those such as reparations, wealth redistribution, entitlements and the like. And the most reviled are: job, work, pay my way, et al.
Interestingly the evaporation of jobs in these places and all others seems to precisely coincide with the coming to power of the current administration, just so the masses would be open and emotionally ready to receive such blather.
But a pacemaker for my 90+ year old mother would not be.
This is such “bolshoi.”
And everybody else with half a frickin brain! This is what I been saying all along! Why doesn’t anybody listen to me?! Who the heck is in charge here?! Who are you people?!
(channeling Marvin Martian) “Oh! Mutiny makes me so angry!”
Senator DeMint, Sir, while you are at it you might inquire with your Democrat friends across the aisle WHY IN THE @#$*%^&@#^$(&% DON’T THEY FEEL ANY OBLIGATION TO THE OATH OF OFFICE THEY TOOK?
The image of Harry Reid as Marvin the Martian is truly priceless.
I was thinking of R. Lee Ermey myself.
I’m starting on Plan B: contact state assembly member and urge that the state take action to nullify the bill as a violation of the Tenth.
Harry Reid can be the watermelon…….
I do believe that is exactly what the good Senator from South Carolina is saying to his Senate colleagues with this action.
Wouldn’t it just be easier to have someone ride around congress seven times and blow a trumpet?
Conan the Barbarian
Its more like Boneheads the Contrarians.
THAT’S WHY OUR GENERATION NEEDS TO DRAW THE LINE HERE, NOW, AND SAY “NO MORE!!!”
It’s a trap, alright, but he isn’t expecting to trap any demorats with this one. They’ll just say it’s constitutional and move on. DeMint’s got bigger critters he’s planning to corral.
It is a RINO trap. Once a RINO is on the record voting the mandate is unconstitutional, there is no practical way for them to back up in some compromise later on with the Democrats without looking woefully ignorant and stupid.
If it is unconstitutional, there is no way to ever vote to pass it …. or to fail to vote to repeal it …. or to fund its enforcement ….
You get the idea.
With a new wave of conservative Senators in 2011, we don’t want the current RINO’s failing to fully back any efforts to roll back this constitutional abomination.
any lawyer who reads the constitution knows it is an article which LIMITS government power. life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are the guaranteed rights.
cspan2 is covering McCain et al arguing against the bribes Reid gave.
How about a Constitutional Point of Order on Barry O’s eligibility to the office of President… like they did for McCain last year? and Goldwater in 1964? Or, is it only Republican candidates that there can be questions of eligibility?
Just remembering back to early November 2008; remembering this …?
Too little too late. When you were reaching across the aisle you should have seen what was looking you in the eye.
Wow! Somebody in Washington, DC remembered we have a constitution.
Of course, had the GOP governed with the constitution in mind over the last 9 years we wouldn’t be in this predicament today.
They all need to go, though some desparately need to go sooner than others…
Those ‘negative liberties’ will bite you on the backside every time.
Of course with Nelson’s bribe other Senators are lining up to sit on Santa Harry’s lap and get their state’s Christmas gift. Remember the bill has not been passed and it is very conceivable that other Senator’s will pretend to hold out just like Nelson did to get what they want added for their state on the taxpayer dime.
Since the Democrats will mumble something about General Welfare permitting all things, the follow-up question is, “what is an example of congress overstepping their constitutionally-defined powers?”
That’s easy… Holding enemy combatants in detention in Cuba and not having read them their Miranda rights upon capture. Nest question please.
oops, Nest = Next
Did a ‘Godless Congress’ denigrate Christmas 2009, denigrate is not related to ‘Niggardly’?
Have we ever considered the possibility of a ‘Godless Congress’ and what that might mean for our future?
I was raised believing ‘communism, socialism etc would NEVER be allowed to exist here.
I was foolish and arrogant.
Our Founding Documents exhibit a profound respect for God as our Lord was understood in the 16th thru 19th Centuries.
The change hasn’t even been all that subtle. It began at least with the Utopian Socialists, then the Progressive movement. Every time we believed they were put down and ‘logic’ plus common sense would prevail. Thus we believed the foe was extirpated never to bother us again.
My own fallacy long believed, was that ‘they’ only misunderstood. I believed they needed no more than a proper education and access to factual data.
I repeat; ‘I was foolish and arrogant’.
Our adversary, (my adversary) actually believes the opposite of my world understanding.
We (I) need to finally understand that my world and most of the things I believe are anathema to my adversary. They seek to destroy my Dogma and full range of beliefs to the point of extinction.
They have declared (ala William Ayers etc) that any means necessary will be used to attain their goals.
They literally believe that ‘The Ends Justify the Means’. Unstated, but becoming obvious this means Lie, Cheat, Steal and Pillage; I propose they will eventually Murder to achieve they’re glorious utopian fantasy.
I propose Kevlar vests and Secret Service protection for Roberts, Scalia, Alito, Thomas, and (even) Kennedy.
You’ve got to hand it to the idiot Democrats in congress, they have indeed achieved something historic…they have united the right, the left, the center, the Conservatives, the Liberals, the Moderates, the independents against the worst piece of legislation in at least a century.
When Jane Hamsher and Arriana Huffington are calling to Kill This Bill, Democrats have got to realize they are creating an epic fail.
Come on Joe Lieberman. The Democrats are disrespecting you big time ((Al Franken is laughing at how he put you in your place).
Stand up for the American people and Kill This Bill.
What’s that? You sold your soul, too?
Sad.
I hope to hear remarks from the floor on how congress has our best interests at heart. In particular, how they know what’s better for us than we.
Remember, we the people? The ones who founded this nation?
We the people.
Actually, this isn’t so new, they’re just eliminating themselves as the middle men. We’ve been paying for goods and services we didn’t want ever since they invented the income tax.
But, but, but… he’d be excluded from the club with no party invitations…… You ask too much of him or any other of these career political hacks.
R-E-V-O-L-U-T-I-O-N
Caesar has crossed the Rubicon.
The Die Is Cast!
For true Republicans it is victory or death!
And have been defacto slaves/serfs since property tax.
Life, Liberty & The Pursuit of Happiness is the Declaration of Independence. But, you’re correct out core rights are in the D of I
The obvious solution to our problem is to elect Tom Coburn (R-Okla) President of the USofA
The entire health care reform bill is a wellness prevention program.
I agree. Honestly, I think we’d all probably be better off with the federal government out of most things–especially education!
And I called Harry Reid’s LV office to ask them by what constitutional authority congress was going to force me to buy insurance. The gal said, “well, it’s like car insurance, blah, blah, blah.” When I pointed out to her that I only needed car insurance if I wanted to drive, but Harry wants me to pay for the privilege of breathing, she told me that I wasn’t a nevada resident (though I used to be) and she didn’t have to answer my question.
You’d think that since Harry seems to be making decisions for the whole country, he probably ought to have at least basic answers for the whole country.
Congress isn’t the entity with the authority to determine the constitutionality of legislation. That would be rather dumb.
And SCOTUS ruled many years ago that if something is done for the public good, then the state can go ahead and do it, even though it is unconstitutional.
The issue there was DUI roadblocks, and trying to point out that this was a very bad precedent was inevitably met with demagoguery – “How can you be defending drink drivers?!?”
So, if I may…..I told you so. I told you that if we wanted to allow DUI roadblocks we should amend the constitution. But noooo – that was too much work.
How ironic if the SCOTUS ruled the provision unconstitutional, since libs almost always must rely upon activist judges to support and enforce their agenda, which usually can never pass through the legislative process.
No. It is. Really.
It is just tradition and politeness that causes the other two branches of government to defer to the judiciary on questions of the constitutionality of laws and executive actions. There is nothing in the Constitution that says that is the way it is to be, and there is nothing in the writings of the Founders to indicate that was what they had intended.
Madison would be aghast that today’s Congress and President believe they cannot simply defy clearly unconstitutional rulings by a runamuck activist Supreme Court.
He would say they are required by the Constitution itself to defy such a Supreme Court.
The Constitution is the Supreme Law of the Land. It is what it is and says what it says no matter what five crackpots in robes claim it says.
Judge Napolitano on the Constitution and health care….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agMiMY3Xzfw
Cicerokid #67 Thank you. I try to tell people that, and they think I’m crazy.
AAHHHH! Now I see how smart Obummer really is. If government can make us buy an insurance product that government determines what the content is he can then use the same method to lift the country out of recession! These ultra smart liberals will just MANDATE that every citizen buy a new car, (GM of course) buy a new washing machine, buy some new clothes etc. The only problem facing them is who they mandate to produce them since our industrial base has moved over seas. Maybe if they call Hugo…….
The Constitution is a fairly simple document easy to read and understand. You only need to go get a law degree if, having read it you feel a need to change a meaning here and there. It takes much education to be able to read “shall not” to “actually mean “shall” Hundreds of thousands of hours (all billable of course) have been spent to work out a legal definition of “shall” there are over 400 currant interpretations of that 5 letter word. Quite remarkable but no where near the record of 6,783 interpretations of “is”. We have come full circle and are back to the beginning, It is impossible to reason when “is” in such doubt. It looks like we will have to come to blows to settle the issue.
The unconstitutionality (read that ILLEGALITY) of Donk-care cannot be ignored, and is actually the single strongest point against it. Sadly, very few are making any effort to drive this home.
Just look at how long it took for it to show up here.
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
Sadly, this is all too true. The Tea Party movement is our only hope. Thank God it’s doing so well!
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
Only because they didn’t get any of the goodies, rest assured.
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
I liken the Dems ‘super-majority’ to a natural disaster, and Nelson is one of the looters that just happened to get caught on camera throwing a trash can through a window and grabbing a big screen TV.
The people are the final arbiters, and it is IMPERATIVE that Congress justify their actions on Constitutional grounds prior to debate and subsequent passage.
It’s up to us to force them to do this, and the sooner we get on it, the better.
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
All this is why the Constitution is so strongly advocated as part of the Federalist Party Platform, which is the guide I personally use in deciding who gets my vote.
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
From the CBO on the 1994 attempt by Hillary and the lefties to take over American health care:
“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.”
So, if the mandate is deemed unconstitutional, the rest remains intact, under its “separability” clause.
What happens then?
RedDog: Chamberlain’s maneuver was a bayonet charge with little firing as they were practically out of ammunition!
Regardless — CHAAAARGE!
Article I, Section 8, Clause 1
” but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;”
The Nebraska Compromise. Clearly unconstitutional.
From FoxNews just now:
What a friggin’ surprise.
Ask a Dem Senate to rule on whether a Dem bill is Constitutional or not and what do you expect?
Who was the one Senator who didn’t vote on the constitutional point of order?
For the first time in our history we will be forced under threat of fine and prison to buy a product from a private business – Congress is in cahoots with the insurance industry. They have rigged the game in favor of business. So much for the Dems stance as being anti-business and for the little guy.
This stinks to high heaven and we all must work to have this part of the bill blocked our overturned by the Supreme Court.
If it is allowed to stand what will prevent the government from forcing us to buy other products such as a crappy jalopy from Government Motors, copies of the communist manifesto or Mao’s little red book?