Pathetic

Pathetic, Arrogant, Alarming:

This is a Congresswoman?



The questioner asks: So, ma'am, what is the Constitutional basis for the individual mandate?

'I don't see where in the Constitution it lets us build an interstate highway system.'

The questioner rightly points out that Congress is specifically authorized to build post roads in Article I, Section 8.

'I don't see where in the Constitution we're empowered to do civil rights legislation.'

Really? You've never seen the 14th Amendment? If you're in a hurry: read the first and last sections.

Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

I'm astonished and alarmed by this line of argument. The political class apparently believes the Constitution is irrelevant; and in spite of having taken an oath to uphold it, time and again we find that they are deeply ignorant of what it says.

You would have thought that someone elected to Congress would have been curious to know just what powers the Constitution gave them. Apparently, at some point, they stopped asking the question.

What's even worse is that a Federal judge just issued a ruling that purports to provide an answer to the question. All you'd have to say is, "As you know, the question is before the courts, but the initial ruling held that the interstate commerce clause is broad enough to embrace that power."

Insofar as that's true, we need a Constitutional amendment to restrict the interstate commerce clause. The more crucial issue here, though, is the attitude that it simply doesn't matter: that any citizen asking for you to account for the Constitutionality of your actions is to be treated dismissively, and indeed angrily.