Can Congress really require that every person purchase health insurance from a private company or face a penalty? Currently the healthcare legislation extends the Commerce Clause's power beyond economic activity to economic inactivity. That is unprecedented. While Congress has used its taxing power to fund Social Security and Medicare, never before has it used its commerce power to mandate that an individual person engage in an economic transaction with a private company. Regulating the auto industry or paying "cash for clunkers" is one thing; making everyone buy a Chevy is quite another. Even during World War II, the federal government did not mandate that individual citizens purchase war bonds. If you choose to drive a car, then maybe you can be made to buy insurance against the possibility of inflicting harm on others. But making you buy insurance merely because you are alive.
* from story by Randy Barnett in The Washington Post
The Constitution of the United States:
Article I, Section 8 – Commerce Clause
"The Congress shall have Power …To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;…"
Amendment IX
"The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."
Amendment X
"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."
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