Quote:
Originally Posted by Hedons
What constitutional authority does the federal government have to require “the people” to buy
healthcare insurance?
-Hedons
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Quote:
Originally Posted by verklingen
none
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That is correct.
Quote:
Originally Posted by verklingen
but what constitutional authority does a person refusing healthcare insurance have to require "the people" to pay for his negligence should he require emergency medical attention?
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None.
Quote:
Originally Posted by verklingen
and where in the constitution is requiring insurance forbidden?
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It isn't.
Quote:
Originally Posted by verklingen
you don't need authority for things not expressly prohibited by the constitution (ever heard of a guy named thomas jefferson?).
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Yes, I've have heard of Thomas Jefferson.
Ever hear of the 9th Amendment?
"The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."
How about 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.”
Supreme Court Case UNITED STATES v. SPRAGUE made explicitly clear the idea that the federal government is limited only to the powers granted in the Constitution?
Here is an excerpt from the ruling...
Appellees assert this language demonstrates that the people reserved to themselves powers over their own personal liberty, and that the legislatures are not competent to enlarge the powers of the federal government in that behalf. They deduce from this that the people never delegated to the Congress the unrestricted power of choosing the mode of ratification of a proposed amendment. But the argument is a complete non sequitur. The fifth article does not purport to delegate any governmental power to the United States, nor to withhold any from it. On the contrary, as pointed out in Hawke v. Smith (No. 1), supra, that article is a grant of authority by the people to Congress, and not to the United States. It was submitted as part of the original draft of the Constitution to the people in conventions assembled. They deliberately made the grant of power to Congress in respect to the choice of the mode of ratification of amendments. Unless and until that Article be changed by amendment, Congress must function as the delegated agent of the people in the choice of the method of ratification.
The Tenth Amendment was intended to confirm the understanding of the people at the time the Constitution was adopted, that powers not granted to the United States were reserved to the states or to the people. It added nothing to the instrument as originally ratified and has [282 U.S. 716, 734] no limited and special operation, as is contended, upon the people's delegation by article 5 of certain functions to the Congress."
Quote:
Originally Posted by verklingen
health insurance didn't even exist the time it was written,
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Correct.
All this aside...
The purpose of my original question
"What constitutional authority does the federal government have to require “the people” to buy health care insurance?" was to bring into the discussion what will be coming next once health care legislation passes into law. It will be ferociously challenged on the grounds of whether it is constitutional or not. I guess I don't know why I even brought up the matter. As Joseph Sobran noted, "The Constitution poses no serious threat to our form of government."
Sorry for the waste of time.
-Hedons
"The Constitution has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case, it is unfit to exist.”
-Lysander Spooner