Majority Leader Steny Hoyer is a dangerous liberal ideologue, but only one among MANY
The Education of Congressman Hoyer
Dr. Paul Moreno| BIG GOVERNMENT
Congress is moving closer to enacting a law requiring all Americans to purchase health insurance. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer says that this is “like paying taxes.”
He’s right about that. But Hoyer made this statement as part of an effort to justify the health-care mandate on constitutional grounds. Here he indicates that he doesn’t understand the Constitution that he took an oath to support.
When asked what power the Constitution gives to Congress to enact this legislation, Hoyer claimed that it came from the Constitution’s “general welfare” clause.
Article One, section eight says that Congress can “lay and collect taxes… to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States.”
But what defines the “general welfare”?
As James Madison explained, the general welfare is defined by the list of enumerated powers in the seventeen clauses that follow. These include the power to borrow money, to establish post offices, to define and punish piracy, to raise and support armies.
The fundamental point was that the federal government did not possess a general grant of power, but was limited to enumerated or delegated powers. The rest of the general reservoir of governmental power (known as the “police power”) was left to the states. The Tenth Amendment reiterated the point.
Why is it that these political hacks must be instructed on the document that they pledge to uphold? Well, to answer my own question, it’s because the Left has spent the last 5 decades in spreading falsehoods about the Constitution and what it means … for example:
Congressman Hoyer is either ignorant of or averts his eyes from this history. One must give credit to President Obama for this much-he recognizes that the Constitution stands in the way of modern liberalism. In a 2001 interview on Chicago public radio, Obama lamented that we have still not broken “free from the essential constraints that were placed by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution … that generally the Constitution is a charter of negative liberty.” But it is doubtful that former Professor Obama will help in the education of Congressman Hoyer.
Continue reading this story … at the link above.
A related discussion takes place over at Verum Serum, entitled: Would a Federal Mandate to Buy Health Insurance be Constitutional? But the problem with thinking of this author is that he presents a case for offering this over to the Supreme Court for resolution … oops, sorry! The Supreme Court would be the WRONG place to have and an “enumerated powers” case settled. The specificity of ENUMERATED is pretty much contained within the language of the Constitution … no more, no less.SIMILAR NEWS FACTOR POSTS:
- Does Constitution authorize congress to force us to buy health insurance? Answer … NO!
- Upholding the Constitution is a low priority for SOME members of Congress
- Can Congress force me to buy health insurance? or … how single payer is unconstitutional
- Nancy Pelosi: Wrong on Health Care … AND, not exactly at the top of her graduating class
- MUST READ OF THE DAY: Is there a case for calling Obama ANTI-AMERICAN?
