CNSNews.com - Sen. Merkley: Authority to Force People to Buy Health Insurance is Part of Congress's 'Very First Enumerated Power'

CNSNews.com - Sen. Merkley: Authority to Force People to Buy Health Insurance is Part of Congress's 'Very First Enumerated Power': "(CNSNews.com) - Sen. Jeff Merkley (D.-Ore.) says that Congress derived the constitutional authority to make Americans purchase health insurance as part of its 'very first enumerated power.' He was referring to the language at the beginning of Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution, which says: 'The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States.'

CNSNews.com asked Merkley: “Specifically where in the Constitution does Congress get its authority to mandate that individuals purchase health care?”

Merkley said: “The very first enumerated power gives the power to provide for the common defense and the general welfare. So it’s right on, right on the front end.”

Before CNSNews.com could ask a follow-up question, Merkley’s press secretary pulled him away, apparently to attend an event."



"They are not to do anything they please to provide for the general welfare.... [G]iving a distinct and independent power to do any act they please which may be good for the Union, would render all the preceding and subsequent enumerations of power completely useless. It would reduce the whole instrument to a single phrase, that of instituting a Congress with power to do whatever would be for the good of the United States; and as they sole judges of the good or evil, it would be also a power to do whatever evil they please." --Thomas Jefferson