Telegram.com - A product of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Telegram.com - A product of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette: "The Senate’s passage of a massive health-care reform bill yesterday morning was greeted by partisan applause by Democrats, but President Obama noted that “we now have to take up the last and most important step and reach an agreement on a final reform bill that I can sign into law.”

We don’t expect reconciling the House and Senate versions will prove all that difficult, but another aspect of Obamacare that deserves closer examination is whether it passes constitutional muster.

Republican senators Jim DeMint of South Carolina and John Ensign of Nevada this week offered an amendment stating Congress lacks power to force Americans to purchase any product from a private party. Predictably, it lost.

Still, it is a point well worth consideration. Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution enumerates the powers of Congress. Nowhere does it list such powers as the House and Senate bills are about to grant to Washington.

The final negotiations to create a unified health-care bill may take some weeks yet, but whatever Congress settles upon and Mr. Obama signs, they are unlikely to dispense with the mandate that all Americans buy coverage. Mr. DeMint and Mr. Ensign have done the nation a service by raising the constitutional objection now, and forcing the Democratic majority to go on record for such a mandate."