Unconstitutional ObamaCare

In the enumeration of governmental powers in the Constitution of the United States, there is absolutely no provision allowing the federal government to force American citizens to buy anything!

Read the Constitution, section by section, and that will be evident.

So all Americans should understand that it is unconstitutional for Congress and President Barack Obama to use the recently enacted ObamaCare legislation to force the American people to buy government-approved medical insurance.

That's why 26 states jointly filed a legal challenge to ObamaCare. And that's why U.S. District Court Judge Roger Vinson, in Pensacola, Fla., has ruled against the law.

Vinson ruled correctly that Obama-Care's provisions are simply not permissible under our Constitution.

The Obama administration responded predictably, claiming the District Court ruling is a "case of judicial overreaching." But the fact is, it is not the federal judge but Obama and the congressional Democrats who approved ObamaCare who were guilty of grossly "overreaching" the powers delegated by the Constitution.

There is no constitutional basis, nor is there any valid legal precedent, on which American citizens may be forced by the federal government to "buy something" -- anything -- or be fined for not doing so!

To illustrate his point, the judge used this analogy of what would be improper congressional action:

"Congress could require that people buy and consume broccoli at regular intervals. Not only because the required purchases will positively impact interstate commerce, but also because people who eat healthier tend to be healthier and thus are more productive and put less of a strain on the health care system."

By using the patent absurdity of government requiring the eating of broccoli, Vinson made the constitutional point very clearly.

He further correctly observed:

"It is difficult to imagine that a nation that began, at least in part, as the result of opposition to a British mandate giving the East India Company a monopoly and imposing a nominal tax on all tea sold in America would have set out to create a government with the power to force people to buy tea in the first place."

Then Vinson, a former Navy pilot, summed up:

"If Congress can penalize a passive individual for failing to engage in commerce, the enumeration of powers in the Constitution would have been in vain for it would be 'difficult to perceive any limitation on federal power,' ... and we would have a Constitution in name only."

While the judge is constitutionally correct, the administration plans to appeal his ruling. Other federal courts have issued mixed rulings on ObamaCare, so the question almost certainly will end up in the Supreme Court.

Unfortunately, we cannot predict with assurance that the Supreme Court will rule constitutionally, as Vinson did.

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