This is what the CBO wrote in 1994 when Hillarycare would've done the same thing as Pelosi-care's mandatory purchase does.
“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. 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.”
The people at CNS News has been asking the people in Congress where is the Constitutional mandate for forcing people to buy health insurance.
The answers have varied from admissions they they have never read the Constitution ;to dismissals like Madame Mimi did (Are you serious? );to silly comments about setting speed limits... and vague comparisons to Congress' authority to raise an Army by using the draft.
The truth is that never before has Congress ever mandated the purchase of a service for the purpose of lawfull residency in the country .
They can claim broad authority all they want under Article 1 Sec 8 necessary and proper clause ;the abuse of the commerce clause;or even under a vaguer claim of providing for the general welfare .But that doesn't make it so.
If there is no limits to what power they can claim under that Section then their powers are unlimitted instead of few and enumerated and NOTHING would be outside Congressional authority.
